


🐱Sweet Nightmares🐱

by Winona_Ryder



Category: Beetlejuice (Cartoon 1989)
Genre: Bakeneko, College, Cussing, F/M, Kidnapping, Neitherworld (Beetlejuice), Rescue, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1989-09-09
Updated: 1989-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29516229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winona_Ryder/pseuds/Winona_Ryder
Summary: Lyds is going to college, but when her and BJ throw a fit over the while she's gone, her plans are to be canceled when Neitherworld is put in GRAVE danger.
Relationships: Charles Deetz & Delia Deetz
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1





	1. Graduation

This was it. This was my big day, the day I graduate from High School! I sat eagerly in my seat, allowing myself to enjoy the short thoughts of no more homework, no more getting up ridiculously early to hop on my bike and ride to school. And as all these exciting thoughts of actually taking a vacation away from my personal Hell on Earth, my name was called.

God dammit.

Standing up in my seat, I awkwardly fumbled up the steps as I looked over at the large crowd of everyone’s parents, and also for him. I didn’t see him anywhere, and I know my pantyhose weren’t black and white stripes. He knew that if he ever possessed those while I was wearing them, he’d rather be eaten by a sandworm.

“Congratulations, Ms. Lydia Deetz!” I heard the principle say as the English teacher handed me my diploma. Shaking hands with the whole staff as I walked across the spotlight and out of their site, I took the help of balance from one of the volunteer workers as I walked down the slim steps. Man, without those helpers, everyone would have broken their necks by now. Once out of the spotlight, and my back was turned from the audience of my whole family who were thrilled to see me up there, my fake smile dropped. Claire was right in front of me, and as she saw miss ‘Lydia Deetz’ walking up to take her place next to her, she scowled. I rolled my eyes and muttered under my breath, “Where the hell are you, BJ?”

This was one of the most important things of my life, and I don’t see my best friend ANYWHERE in site! At least….until I realized something.

Oh. Shit.

If he wasn’t nowhere in site, though it’s unlike him to miss this, he must be planning something, something very, very wrong. If only I saw it coming sooner. As time flew by, I said the alphabet each time the last name of each letter in order changed to the letter next in line. He wouldn’t do anything like that to ruin my graduation. I know BJ. He’s probably hiding in the crowd somewhere as Mr. Beetleman.

Okay, so I’m singing the alphabet to myself just to pass the time, so what? Here comes the last names of the letters H…I…J and then- oh dear lord, no.

No, no, NO! Fuck. No.

I’m dreaming! This is a nightmare. He could have shown up as anyone he wanted, but like this?!

“Congratulations, Ms. Betty Juice!”

“Hey, how ya’ doin?”

Heh, sucker, all I had to do was put my name on the list, copy a diploma and then take my place in the audience. Too bad Betty Juice’s last name kept me away from Lyds. As I walked across the stage, I scratched my legs together and looked down at the hairy mess I should of wore pantyhose for. One of the teachers looked down with disgust as I shook his hand and then made my way down the man made stairs. I shook the volunteer’s hand too, but had to pull it away. What the hell?

How the girls walk down those stairs, I swear to god I don’t see how they don’t trip. When I got done shaking the guy’s hand, I tripped down them on the first step! 

“I’m alright!” I announced as everyone started laughing. Bouncing back to my seat, I saw Lyds sitting in the front row on the last chair to my very left.

Her face held mere shock, and I laughed giving her a thumbs up and pranced back to my seat.

Don’t blame me for coming as Betty Juice, I had nowhere else to hide and be unnoticed, and I didn’t want to possess Claire’s body, oh hell no. Lyds would be pissed if I did that, mostly because I’m not supposed to keep pulling pranks during the most important part of her lifetime. An outside graduation is the worst place if you want a hiding spot. Almost every thing and every person was in the spotlight in an outside graduation. Then, I guess, the electric bill didn’t charge them much since the usage was so important. No rafters to hide on top of and pretending to be a teacher so I could actually congratulate her myself wouldn’t work. And like I said, possessing a girl would piss her off. Mostly, because it’s not just Lydia’s day, it’s every kid who was graduating’s day.

I looked at the diploma I was given as I sat back down in my seat and snickered. Lyds turned around in her seat, unfrozen from pissed shock and looked around for me. God, how much she had grown up. I rested my head in my palm as my elbow supported itself on the arm of the chair, looking at her and thinking. She’s grown up to be a woman, an 18-year-old woman. I miss the times she were 12. What fun we had then, right?

Cupping my hands I muttered something faint into them and threw my voice at her. And once that was done, I rested my arm back on the arm chair, and then my head back to where it was. Maybe she couldn’t see me back here because I was slouching in my chair so much…who knows?

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world, babes. Congrats!” I heard the faint whisper, the whisper in his voice. My very best friend, whom was somewhere behind me now, I couldn’t see.

Claire didn’t hear him, that was good. Proudly holding onto my diploma, I inched closer as the principle took the microphone from the English teacher and announced, 

“Now it’s time for the awards, now that we have all those diplomas out of the way,” he said. I inched forward a little in my seat and heard a scoff slightly behind me but mostly next to me. 

“Hah! Like you would get an award! That’s totally not gonna happen, sorry freak!” I heard Claire laugh. Why couldn’t she muffle it, because I was really not in the mood for her bullshit. But luckily for me, the cheerleaders were up first. And as captain of them, Claire had to go up there and perform a really long, and boring speech, of how all the hard practice and cheering for the football players was worth it.

And the days go by.

Blah, blah, blah. Blahblah, blah, blah blablah blah, blah.

I turned around and saw the slightly half up half down ponytail of Betty Juice waving around. Eventually, it occurred to me that he was mocking Claire as she spoke. Muffling a giggle, I turned back around in my seat and ‘pretended’ to give a damn about Claire’s speech. As Claire came down and all the cheerleaders were handed their award for sportsmanship, I clapped and felt like being a smart ass.

“Bravo, Claire. I think the best part of your speech was the ending. Way to knock ‘em dead….literally.”

Over the years, I have to say that BJ has taught me something, and it’s to stand up for myself. Though, I was having a Beetlejuice moment, and had to say that, for his sake. I could hear Betty Juice somewhere in the back laughing.

“And now for the award of the best portfolio and artistic designs, Ms. Lydia Deetz!”

Once again, I could hear my family clapping the loudest, but this time I heard a bit of Betty Juice in the crowd. Bertha and Prudence both cheered like they did the last time too. As I walked up the steps a second time I shook the principle’s hand and adjusted the microphone. This time, I knew I had a speech to give, but I won’t make it long. Screw that.

“I’d just like to say thank you everyone. I have worked very hard for this award, but mostly I should say that I did it mostly for the fun of it. I thank all my friends, too, whom had helped me achieve this small certificate. And if it’s the only award I get, that’s just fine with me. This is the best thing I had ever achieved in my life!”

With that, I got off the stage and left my friends and family clapping for me again. Wow, what joy! But the thought of joy didn’t last too long as I remembered from the award that, I was going to college in a week. And I haven’t even told BJ yet! The gut feeling told me to run, not because I’m going, but because of how long I was going. And four years was a long time.


	2. Bright Idea!

I know she’s growing up, don’t get me wrong. I’m very proud of Lyds. They grow up so fast! After everyone was leaving the bleachers and making their way to the after parties of a lifetime, I scurried as Betty Juice away from the crowd and into the main gym. Maybe Lyds looked so mad and embarrassed because I haven’t really cleaned myself up as Betty in a long, long time. Mostly, it was the unshaven legs, the grease and sweat stained outfit, and the uncombed hair. Truthfully, I felt bad, mostly for Lydia, for not at least showing up decent looking. She looked so cut and clean, anyone could tell she was more excited than any of the other graduates. Lyds was…well…herself, mostly. Different from any other human I’ve at least seen in my afterlife. No one could really compete with how she approaches problems. Or at least, how she helps me get out of the shit I get stuck in. The most amazing thing, I think, is the patience she has for me. I can only remember a few times where she’s completely lost it, and let me tell you something, buddy, I’m never going back. Coming back to reality, my ears picked up the sound of running on hardwood gym floors, my footsteps, heavy and loud. I somewhat startled myself. I mean, oh my god they were loud. Stopping before I broke a hole in the ground, I looked down unpleasing on how much weight my Betty shape had gained. Changing back to my old self, which was the intention of going somewhere where no one else was, I stopped and began thinking for a minute. I needed money, for something very important. Why the hell did I just now remember it?! A graduation present! I had forgotten to get her a fucking graduation present! What kind of best friend am I? Oh well, as much as I was worried and punching myself in the face for instant money, it suddenly came to me; the Deetz. They had always given me money as I asked for it. And tonight was a perfect night to get enough for a decent graduation present! Who knows how many after parties would be going on tonight for graduation? And as unlikely as it would be for Lydia to go, I’m sure she’ll be going to someone’s after party.

With my brilliant idea, I went to go find Lyds. 

“Hey, babes!” I cheered when I appeared as a hat on the ground by her. Lydia jumped and turned around; looking for whomever had addressed her, somehow expecting them to be somewhere as tall as she was. She didn’t look down at first. But, damn my pervert thoughts. It was hard not to try to look up the gown she was wearing. Nonetheless was she wearing her school’s uniform underneath it. Forcing myself to lean back as a hat, I called up. 

“Uh, down here, Lyds.” The tone was unexpected, but I didn’t want to violate my own best friend! 

“Oh, BJ!” she smiled happily. Man, it was good to hear her say that. I haven’t heard from her all day, well, meaning that she hadn’t really addressed me much. Really, it’s been like this for the past two weeks. Finals are a pain in the ass. But now it’s different. Now it’s summer time. She can be free to hang out with her best friend in the neitherworld every day from this point on; just the two of us, no school, no pestering tests, and no worries about failing. 

“Hey, babes! Sorry I couldn’t come as anything else. It’s hard to find a place in an outdoor graduation without being suspected as a black and white instrument. And the bleachers are just too far away.”

“That’s fine,” she murmured. Though, I knew it would take a bit for her to get over. 

“Lyds, are you going to any after parties?” I came out with the question without a second thought; Bad idea.

“What’s so important about it?” she asked. Wait, never mind, brilliant idea! I think this is a way of saying ‘yes, but why do you want to know?’ 

“Just wondering, to be truthful; better to have a heads-up than no heads-up at all, right?” I smiled stupidly. Please say yes! Please say yes! 

“I guess you’re right. Yeah, I am going to one, against my will, though. Delia won’t let me come strait home and Bertha and Prudence want to crash Claire’s. I feel like I haven’t done a lot with them for the past while and this might be the last chance I see them, so I might as well have fun while I can!” 

Wait…did she just say that she might not see Bertha and Prudence ever again? Before I could open my mouth and ask, I was interrupted right on cue. 

“Come on, Lydia!” Bertha’s urging voice rose. “We’re gonna be late!”

“Well, we could afford to be a little late, Bertha,” Prudence stuttered, pushing her glasses up higher on her nose. 

“It might be better if we let a bunch of people enter before we do. That way Claire wouldn’t kick us out so fast.”

“Prudence is right, Bertha. How about we go home and grab something to eat and get ready for the party before we just burst in,” Lydia suggested. 

Sitting there on the ground looking bored, I waited for the right time to tell her that I had to disappear for a moment. Time to put the plan into action! She couldn’t know that I was getting the money to buy her a graduation gift, which should have been done earlier, but still! Finally, Bertha and Prudence agreed to go freshen up before they arrive, and headed off. 

“Hey, Lyds, I gotta go back to the roadhouse for a minute. I’ll meet ya’ in your room when you get there.”

“Alright, BJ, see ya then,” she smiled. 

“Oh, and Lyds, congrats on your award. You really earned it!” I complimented before disappearing. That ought a’ stop that skeleton from telling what I’m really up to. As I reappeared, I stepped out of the light coming from an upstairs window as I headed to the front door of the Deetz home. Thank god Delia had come home to a little early to avoid the traffic. Charles, on the other hand, I’m guessing went out to celebrate with a few other fathers about the graduation. As I stepped back into the shadow of night, my outfit faded into that of Mr. Beetleman. Knocking on the front door, I could hear Delia dropping a spoon and rushing to the door. Of course, she wasn’t the only parent in town sobbing because their child is growing up. And Ice-cream would just ruin that beautiful (Not really) figure of hers. 

“Hello Mrs. Deetz! Lemme guess, Lydia is at an after graduation party?” I tried to use my best advertisement voice I could. I wanted to make sure this worked out perfectly! Delia smiled faintly and nodded, 

“Why yes, she is! Bertha and Prudence took her.”

“Have you ever been worried that something might happen at the party?” I asked lowering my voice a bit. 

“Oh, no, I trust my Lydia!” she gasped. Should a’ known. Delia wasn’t going to be too easy with this. Neither would Charles. 

“Delia, Delia, Delia,” I tsk’d, “I thought you would have realized. Most of the time when there’s a party, there’s under aged drinking.” Well, surely there’d be that at Claire’s party. 

“Aren’t you at all scared that she might…we…” I trailed off, attempting to indicate the worst that could happen. Delia got the point and gasped. 

“No, I didn’t realize!” Of course she didn’t. “Mr. Beetleman, would you mind going to the party and keeping an eye on my daughter please?”

“I’d love to, babes! But it’s gonna cost,” I held out my hand excitedly. Rolling her eyes as if she were expecting me to do so, she pulled out her purse and paid my overpriced bill.

Man, BJ was somethin’ else. I gripped the steering wheel of my dad’s truck as I sped down the road. Yeah, I know, breaking the speeding limit is against the law; like I have any other choices. Bertha and Prudence are expecting me to be there soon, and I needed a whole wardrobe change. My ‘to do’ list consisted of a shower, fighting with BJ what to wear, and then speeding again to get there. I’m so thankful Charles decided to get himself a truck last year. Now with two cars, Delia was able to drop him off at the bar to ‘celebrate’ with his buds about my departure (which I still need to tell BJ), and then go home. That leaves me with the truck to drive myself home, and to wherever else I have to go. And as much as I don’t want to, I’m going to Claire’s party. A screech broke my train of thought as I swerved on the rode to avoid a dog that had jumped in front of the truck. Why do they do that? It’s like they want to get hit! Fighting the truck for control of the steering wheel, I drifted and hit the gas unknowingly, but then slammed on the brakes again as another screech ripped through the silence of Peaceful Pines. That was convenient! No sarcasm in that comment, either. Apparently I had drifted into our driveway and parked perfectly in the side, avoiding Delia’s car by only two feet. That was pretty good for losing control of a car. 

“Hey honey!” Delia exclaimed as I walked through the doorway and was tackled by a mountain of happiness. No, not a mountain, but my step mother. 

“Hi Ma,” I muttered under the breath taking squeeze she gave me. Ma was all that I could sputter out, since I could barely breathe. Once she was done, I could see the gleam of happiness and yet sadness at the same time in her eyes. She didn’t want her child to fly away out of the nest. Well…stepchild, anyway. But all in all, it was still the same love any real mother would have given her real child. And even if ‘step’ replaced the real in the relationship, there wasn’t a difference. And for a short time of that moment, I realized that Delia had, in a way, wished she was my real mom. I’m not saying she could take that place in my life, but I would love her the same way if she were my real mom. Hugging her back for a moment, I smiled and went up to her room, explaining that I had to clean up before a party. Delia was so proud, so was Charles, but he wasn’t around to show it at the moment.

The door to my room slowly closed behind me. When I heard the clicking sound of it finally shutting, I looked around suspiciously. From wall to wall, and floor to ceiling, the room was dead silent. I felt my nose wrinkle slightly at distaste towards the silence. Oh well, he’d be here sooner or later. Venturing over to the dresser that held my vanity mirror, I opened the second to bottom drawer and began searching for decent bottoms to wear. Should it be skirt, or shorts? Irritated with not being able to find something within the first three minutes, I began scattering them. A minute later, I was a little shorter on the fuse and threw them out of the drawer. Still, found nothing. Taking the drawer from the dresser itself and dumping everything out, a loud CRUNCH caught my attention. Startled, I jumped and dropped the drawer, turning around and yelping. To my demise, it was BJ eating a beetle. God I hated how he ate them. But yet, it was funny, and it was him. 

“Jesus, babes, ya’ think that you’d be use to me dropping in like this by now,” he snickered, leaning against the frame of the mirror. I was tempted, oh so tempted, to throw the drawer at him myself. But then Delia would suspect something, like she did just now. 

“Lydia, is everything okay up there?”

“Yes, Delia. Everything’s fine, thanks for asking,” I called back. Beetlejuice rested an arm near the bottom of the frame, his elbow sticking slightly outside the mirror. 

“So, anything planned after the party?”

“Yeah,” I sighed, “going to ‘bed.’”

“Aw, why go to bed early?! Are you running a fever?” he asked and turned into a thermometer.

“Because, BJ, I’m sure we’re not going to be leaving the party any time early if we don’t get kicked out. And also, if I do go to bed early, I’ll wake up early and we can go to the Shocking Mall in the morning. We’d have the whole day to spend together!” He seemed convinced. 

“Right, well, shouldn’t ya start getting ready, then?” BJ turned back to normal within my reflection in the mirror. I nodded and walked out the door. Somehow, he got the message I was planning on taking a shower first.

The bathwater was running hot. I figured a shower would be a little overrated. And, on the other hand, I needed time to make a list of things I needed to do within the next week, which is why I suggested the Shocking Mall. First off, I needed a new bedspread for the twin size in my dorm. Then there were curtains for the window on my half. There’s a lot that I needed, to be honest. I had a laptop, which was a gift from my parents this year, and I had the printing programs that were also needed; photoshop, etc. CD holders, a file cabinet to keep my homework and other papers in order, and a pen station for when I write home to Charles and Delia; and possibly, Beetlejuice. Telling him is going to be a dark, dark period of my life.

Come’on, someone help me out! I don’t know what to get Lyds, and a long enough time for her to take a shower isn’t long enough for me to come up with not the simplest of ideas! To at least get to thinking, I decided to browse back around the neitherworld. Starting off at the Roadhouse, there ‘were’ a few ideas as I walked out of my own disgusting room. It could have something to do with bats, spider webs, demons or something! 

“Weell ‘ello Mizure Beteljuise. Why do yew seem so stressed?” the dreaded French accent rose behind me as I made my way to the door. Jacques LaLean stood there in his doorway across the hall from mine, his arms crossed and his confused expression telling me that he was concerned. He shouldn’t be. 

“None of your business, bonehead,” I muttered and continued walking. Jacques began speaking regular French, his tone sounding annoyed and fading as the door slammed shut.

Anyone out there with an annoying dog that your neighbor owns; a dog that barks too much or just doesn’t like you? Well, here’s BJ’s 411 on how to deal with those pesky mutts! Poopsie barked repeatedly as I slowly walked in thought. Biting my lower lip I started to get annoyed. 

“Shut up you little hairball! I’m trying to think!” I yelled. Of course, it wouldn’t work. He kept barking. 

“Put a sock in it, you’re starting to piss me off.” And the barking continued. I would just keep walking, but it’s Revenge, you know I love it. I looked at the doghouse and gave it life. The large yellow pile of wood emerged from the ground and began chasing the annoying mutt around The Monster Across The Street’s yard. I couldn’t help but laugh, and then I kept walking. Remember, kids. Revenge comes first!

Okay, here we are! The Shocking Mall! 

“Now, what kind of graduation present would be worthy enough for my, best friend,” I asked myself out loud in a gentleman-like tone. The window shopping didn’t really last long though, as a loud scream in my head rose. It wasn’t of fear, though, thank god. It was of stress, so much of it that anger was clear in the sound. And as much as I want to go home and hide under my coffin bed to avoid being eaten alive, I had to go and save the day. For the sake of my pissed off friend…


	3. Party! Party! Party!

Percy sat on the edge of my bed, licking his paw constantly. Not really paying attention to him though, I tossed another whole outfit out of my closet and it landed right on him. The poor old cat screeched with fear and darted off and under the bed.

I stood there in the doorway of my closet, wrapped in a bath robe, and thought hard. Didn’t take much for me to realize that I was just standing there hitting my head against the closet door frame. How long I had been doing this, I did not know.

Okay, Lydia, you’re a Deetz, you an do this. Comforting myself for a minute before I stopped and began to think was all I could do to calm down and think strait(Even if it meant lying to myself about being able to do this).

Lets look at the problem. I can’t find the outfit I’m looking for. About a few months ago, I tried to prepare myself for the college dorm parties by making outfits perfect for the occasions. Well, the one outfit that was worthy of this particular party didn’t want to show it’s...fabric? Well, it doesn’t have a face, so what else can’t it show? Unless...oh no. No, Beetlejuice wouldn’t torture me like that! Oh hell no. He’s matured a little over the years, I have to give him credit for that.

As I thought this to myself, I decided to start with the basics of clothing; Underwear. Opening the drawer, I immediately took it all back; how he matured? Hah! Yeah right. And how he can make me take it all back so easily is just a wonder, knowing how patient and tolerant I usually am. 

“Hey babes!” a smiling thong greeted me as I lifted it out of the drawer with one finger. 

“Please, tell me, why are you in my underwear drawer?”

“Um...browsing?” he smiled stupidly, and I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment. “

What the hell are you...nevermind. What do you want?”

“I’m here ‘cause I heard ya screaming"

“Oh...” I murmured and then realized he was still a thong. Taking a thumb and shifting it inside one side, and then pulling it back with the other hand, I flung the thong across the room. BJ flew and lightly hit the wall; he was still a pair of underwear, anyways. Thankfully not my underwear. 

“Well, Beetlejuice, if you want to help me, you have to be serious. I don’t have enough time to goof off.”

“Why the hell not?” the thong asked and tried to slink and stand up, but the fabric body he now had at the moment only let him slink back to the floor. 

“Because, Beetlejuice, I’ve got a few minutes to be at a party and I don’t even know what I’m gonna wear!”

“Third time’s the charm, babes. Just one more time, please? I need to get out! I’ll help ya first, I promise.”

I guess I could let him out. And he hasn’t really broken a promise of mine since the time he pulled pranks on my parents. Smiling slightly I opened my mouth. I didn’t really need to chant, just one word and he was out and about. 

“Beetlejuice!”

The striped thong on the floor rose and grew longer, like a snake, and then shaped into that of a body. My best friend’s body. 

“Never fear! BJ is here! What’s the problem, babes?”

“That outfit I made months ago, the black one with the cat ears on the hood;I can’t find it.” I muttered in frustration. Looking back over at BJ, he had began to float where he once stood, that thinking expression on his face. 

“Well, I give’up,” he shrugged, leaning back and crossing his legs in the air. 

“Thought I should ‘never fear’ because ‘Bj’s here’.” I hissed under my breath and made my way back to my closet. I began to dig back way deep into the closet, throwing more clothes out into my room, which had already started to look like a tornado had hit it. 

“’Ey, Lyds! I think I found it!”

Surprise exploded within me so suddenly that when I burst out of my closet I was pinning him to the ground. 

“WHERE?!”

“There!” He pointed across the room to a pile of clothes, and sure enough, it was sitting there right on top. Well, the shirt was on top, anyways. It was black with a red cat head on the chest, with black eyes too. The cat was sown on as well as the eyes; and the shirt had a hood that had Cat ears on it. I was going for the ‘Emily the Strange’ look on the outfit.

Getting off BJ and leaving him sitting there beat red from being pinned down by a girl in a towel, I ran over and picked it up, and sure enough the red plaid miniskirt was underneath it. 

“Thank you, BJ! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I yelled and squeezed him in a death hug. He squirmed a little, and then I rushed him through the mirror. 

“Now get, I need to change!” With that, I forced him through the mirror and turned it to where it faces the floor so I don’t have to worry about the worst.

Man, Lyds seemed pretty excited about that party she’s going to. Maybe she just wants to get it over with? I dunno. Standing in m’room with my hands in my pockets, I bit my lower lip, trying to think. God I wasn’t good at this thinking stuff at all as far as finding a present is concerned.

“Well if it izn’t Beetlejoose!” Jacques appeared in my doorway, arms crossed and smiling like he usually did. 

“What do you want, bonehead?”

“You zeem as ‘if you’re terribly confuzed,” his sockets shifted slightly. Something told me that if he had eyebrows, he’d be raising one of ‘em. Man he bugged me, mostly right now because he was right. I was terribly confused. More than I should be. 

“Well?”

“You’re wasting your time, numbskull,” I grunted, shoving my way past him and out the door. 

“If there was something I was confused about, I sure as hell wouldn’t ask you for help.” And with that, I exited the roadhouse in hopes of stumbling across something; anything.

With no ideas, I decided to go watch Lydia at her party. After all, I was being paid to.

“Lydia! It’s about time!” Bertha exclaimed, giving me an excited hug as I locked the truck and shoved the keys into my pocket. Prudence appeared and we all had a group hug moment. The faint lights illuminating from Claire’s front porch dimly lit our walk up the driveway and to her monstrous house. Prudence decided to go in first, then Bertha, and I went in last.

All three of us felt insecure. No, not just insecure, but extremely.Various party-goers stopped with beers in hand to sneer at us just as we come in through the door. Obviously, it won’t be long until Claire found out we’re here. So we might as well enjoyed it while we could.

“I wonder if they have any soda,” Prudence muttered, digging into the third cooler we’ve tried so far and still found nothing but beer, beer, and more freakin’ beer. 

“I’ll just go poor myself a cup of water,” I murmured, feeling pretty silly for being here in the first place and went into the kitchen. No Claire yet, this must be a good sign. At least, I wish it was.

“Is the freakshow afraid to drink a little alcohol?” a sneering voice cooed behind me. Wow, that was fast. Indeed it was my worst nightmare standing where I least wanted to look right now. I felt myself freeze in place, then turned around from the sink and took a sip of the water that I’m obviously being judged for getting. 

“Alcohol kills brain cells. I don’t want any of it if it’s going to dissolve my brain to be similar to yours.” It was the first thing that came to my mind. But as lame as it was, it was still enough to bring an annoyed scowl to Claire’s face. Smiling to myself, I thought I could handle it.

Apparently not...

“Don’t test me,” her voice was low, and I could tell I had pissed her off. Maybe being slightly drunk makes your fuse a little shorter? 

“Well what do you call all that shit you give me during school?”

“Well, gee, I don’t know,” she looked up innocently. 

“All I know is that you deserve it.” Oh god, please let me hit her. Bertha and Prudence struggled through the crowd with concern faces. Though, that concern immediately switched to fear and Prudence couldn’t finish her sentence. 

“Lydia, how long does it take to get a glass of...” Everyone’s eyes turned from the interesting conversation between Claire and I to Bertha and Prudence. “...water...” she finished with a gulp and slunked back a bit, but Bertha wouldn’t move out of her way, wondering if she should stand her ground or if the crowd who was wrapped around Claire’s finger would take her out easily. I was scared of the same thing, and growled as Claire began to sqawk again. 

“You brought the rest of ‘em?” she snickered. 

“All three of you know you weren’t welcome here in the first place.”

“We thought we’d drop by anyway,” Prudence attempted to create her own clever comeback, but as Claire looked at her, she shut up. 

“What part of ‘unwelcome’ is there not to understand?” she hissed lowly. Damn, she had gotten meaner since the seventh grade. She even dropped that whole ‘Like, totally’ routine. If anything, I’m afraid that she had actually learned something in high school. And that something had gotten her to be just as popular as Hannah Montana, and use her money wisely to earn her place in the cheer squad. If I knew any better, I’d say she was the most evil being in the world of the living so far. 

“I don’t understand why you have to be such a bitch,” I muttered outloud.

Oh shit.

Claire looked back at me, glaring as if she were a tigress and I had just interupted her beauty sleep(And to agree with her for once, she does need a lot of it). I didn’t move though, that’s what sucked. Because I couldn’t. If she were alone, I probably would have been able to take her down with a hand tied behind my back. But no, we were at a party. Her party. And there was a whole bunch of big fans of hers out there that could break me in half if I touched her. Why was the thought of them stopping me from at least trying to kick Claire's tush? Because my Ghost With The Most wasn’t here. I couldn’t sense his presence anywhere, and I wasn’t going to be able to hold back these muscle spasms trying to punch her any longer. Without him, I had no strength within myself, and I wouldn't have the pleasure of watching him juice them all. 

“What did you say, freak show?”

“Hold that thought,” I said, turned around and snagged a cup of beer from a tall dark haired boy standing behind me. He looked at me confused for a moment. 

“Thank you,” I nodded to him, then turned back around and lifted the cup up as if I were going to drink the fluids it held. But right before the plastic of the cup could touch my lips, I jerked it forward and splashed a cup full of Budwiser all over Claire’s outfit. Prudence and Bertha looked relieved, obviously scared that I was actually about to start drinking.

Claire on the other hand, was even worse than what we started out with on her pissed off scale. I literally saw the liquid of the beer evaporate off of her face from how steamed she had gotten. The rest of the crowd, who had been laughing hysterically, suddenly scooted back away from the center of attention. Claire screamed wildly and several jockies leapt out from random bits of the party. I felt like a Charlie's Angel about to fight a bunch of bad guys. It reminded me of one of those weird fighting scenes, judging how fast they had entered her presence to help rid Claire of her problems. 

“You want to have a beer fight?” The wicked look on her face told me this wasn’t good. 

“Hold her still,” Claire commanded the confused boys wrapped around her fingers. 

“Better yet, pin her to the floor.”

“Don’t bring your stupid henchman into this! Come on, lets fight girl to girl,” I snarled threateningly at her. Claire smiled, obviously ignoring my insults I wildly threw at her. But before I could say anymore, they did as they were told. Suddenly, I was being pinned down by the arms and legs by two guys who were just behind her five fucking seconds ago! Damn that was fast. Not to mention that the one time I actually stand up for myself, I can’t even get the enjoyment of punching someone! Claire cackled slightly to herself as she held up a large bottle of Moonshine. My eyes grew wide. 

“That stuff is illegal!”

“My daddy always keeps a few tucked away in the back of the liquor cabinet. Illegal, yes, but I won’t be the one drinking it. Now open wide, girlie!” she smiled again, unscrewing the lid and lowering the bottle to my mouth as if she were expecting me to drink from it. I pulled away, trying to think. 

“Beetlejuice-”

“Don’t say that!” Claire screeched, obviously still remembering when she had called out Beetlejuice herself, and hated it. With loyalty in their hearts, one of the Jocks pinned my arm down by the joint with the weight of his body, using his knee, and used his free hand to hold my mouth open, but keep me from speaking. 

“Lydia!” Bertha and Prudence yelled in unison, trying to make their way to help me, but a few other Claire fans wouldn’t let them pass. 

“Wait your turn, you two!” she snapped. Wrinkling my nose, I licked the Jock’s hand when he tried to keep me from speaking. He pulled it away and I took it as an opening. 

“Beetlejuice!” Claire yelled in frustration when I said it again. Just one more time, that’s all I needed was one more time to say it and he’d be here to help. But would I really expose him like this?

I needed time to think. I needed time, period! But time was something scarce, and when that bottle of Moonshine was forced down my throat and tilted up, I choked and gargled as much as I could, but I about swallowed a good deal of it before I figured what to do. I shoved my tongue through the opening of the nose and plugged it before I was forced to drink any more of the strong liquid.

“Swallow it!” Claire growled, shoving it further into my mouth. I sputtered again and choked, this time inhaling a little bit of it. This wasn’t good...at all. Jerking my head to the side as hard as I could, I yanked the bottle from Claire’s perfect manicure. Struggling one last time under the weight of two football players, I thrusted my torso in the air, smacking Claire in the head with the bottle as I held onto the tip with my teeth. Then, I fell back, pushing the bottle out of my mouth by the tongue and let the glass break on the floor. Very little of the clear liquid was left, and I felt so gross and dizzy all at the same time. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to get up and move on to the next bit of action in this joint, but I couldn’t. Taking deep breaths, I didn’t know what to do. One more time I call his name and he would appear in front of everyone. But if I waited, I could have had several more beers forced down my throat and my parents wouldn’t be too happy about that. What to do?!

The weight on my body lifted immediately, as if this whole time I were being dragged down to hell, and now I’m finally floating back up to the surface. Standing up lazily, I squinted real hard just to get a less blurry vision of what I was seeing. Whatever was going on, it made the boys retreat off of me and everyone stand still in both respect and fear. Finally, I eventually realized that an adult-adult(as in, someone who was obviously old enough to be our parents, possibly) had discovered, and joined in on the party.

Well fuck.

“Who is that?”

“I hope he doesn’t call our parents...”

“What’s up with the stripes?”

“I don’t know, maybe he's European.”

“Does he even brush his teeth?!”

“He looks like a carpenter or an electrician or something.”

Many whispers such as those began to fill the awkward silence with a low murmur and soft hissing. By the sound of the unbrushed teeth, weird outfit and stripes for style, I’d say it was the Mr. ‘Handy Dandy’ Man. But I couldn’t be too sure, I mean right now I could only hear, and my hearing was faint. 

“Babes?” a confused asked, growing louder by the sound of it. Guessing he was coming closer, I couldn’t think of anything right to say. For a minute, I didn’t even think it was me who was speaking. But surely enough, I felt like I meant every word of it. 

“Hey hot stuff!” I said, still not able to see, I went to throw my arms around someone, anyone, but ended up getting Claire. She screamed and I pushed her away. 

“Jebus babes, don’t run away from your feelings,” I joked and leaned on the countertop for support. If I could think right now, I’d probably be looking for some way to start getting sober, and fast.

An annoyed grunt sounded and I felt my wrist being grabbed. Didn't take my drunken mind long to find out that whoever had entered the party to cause such a silence was pulling me out. I took about five seconds stuttering, and not on purpose either, and shouted loud for everyone to hear, 

“Thats all folks!”

And then the door slammed behind me.


	4. Awkward...

“Wha- what the hell, why do you gotta be like that? The people, the- the people were fun back there,” she slurred from her lips that seemed to be hanging open. I needed to get her home without her parents seeing her. Not like this. 

“Lyds, what the hell? Why were you drinking?!” I turned around and bent down to eye level with her. I was so pissed. Lydia, m’babes, m’very own best friend had been drinking! I saw the label on the floor. It was that Moonshine shit. What the hell?!

She stopped allowing herself to be dragged along the sidewalk from the party like this, and yanked her wrist away. Some how, Lyds had found the attention spand to snap back to what she thought was a threat. 

“I wasn’t drinking!”

“Look at you, Lydia. You’re drunk!”

“NO I!”

What the fuck, was that Chinese or something? “...what?” Man she had to be out of it. She stopped arguing and just stood there, one eye wincing. Her expression looked slightly pissed off, but more like confused. “Just tell me, babes. Just tell me why. It’s not like you! Not at all!” I tried to be as serious as I could. And as horrible as I was at this sappy shit, it might be the only way, who knew? I hadn’t tried it before until’ now. Lydia looked away and cursed under her breath. Then she started to mutter gibberish or something. 

“I wasn’t drinking...”

“Then why are you drunk?” I scowled. 

“Claire did it.”

“Wha?”

“Claire. Did. It.”

“Whaddya mean?”

She was getting frustrated. I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to face me when she tried to turn around. Lydia sighed, took a deep breath, and held it. Maybe it was good to inhale a lot of air to think better, who knew? I was dead, I couldn’t tell. 

“She pinned me down, and forced me to drink,” her words were still pretty slurred as she tried to exhale when she spoke, but she worded them carefully as if she really wanted to tell me in the first place. 

“Why didn’t you call m’name the third time?!” I shouted. I did hear the first two times. Both sounded as if she were shouting them urgently, but sometimes that’s just how she said it. Partially, it is my fault that I didn’t just poof there when I heard my name the first two times, and, okay, a lot of it is my fault, but I couldn’t have known. Of course, she didn’t need to really call for me to be there, she never did put me back the first time she chanted my name earlier. 

“’Cause, BJ!” Then she stopped before saying anything else, and snickered. 

“Bj...”

“What?”

“Sounds like I am calling you Blow Job!” she laughed hysterically. This wasn’t the right time to talk about this with her. Hell, I probably couldn’t hold a conversation about puppies with her at the moment. Although, hanging out with Lyds while she’s drunk might be fun...no. No, I wouldn’t do that to her. I needed to get ‘er home. 

“Okay, Lyds, Just say the magic B words and I’ll take yas home.” Well, to the Neitherworld first, then she’d be back to her room in no time if she could even make it through that door of hers.

“Blow Job, Blow Job, Blow Job!” she shouted. I smacked my forehead and let my hand slide down my face. 

“You know, Blow Job-” Lyds started to say calmly after a few moments of silence.

“Don't call m’ that,” I cut her off with an edgy tone.

“Fine, B.J., as I was saying; I really gonna miss yew, friend,” she slung an arm around my shoulders. What? 

“Come again?”

“I said I am gonna miss you, buddy o’ pal!”

I felt slightly uneasy. It might be better to just take her home first. 

“Okay, say the other magic B words,” I said very carefully, as if I were speaking to a toddler. 

“Bitch?”

“No!”

“Allright, fine. Beetle... something?”

“Yeessss?”

“Beetle...orange?”

“No.”

“Beetle...pie?”

I rolled my eyes. This was ridiculous. I needed to find out what had happened to her, and fast. Because if I didn’t, soon she’d probably forget what happened and it doesn’t sound like she had too good of a pleasant time at the party. I snapped my fingers and a jug of apple juice appeared in front of her face. 

“Oh! Beetleapple!” This time, a magic marker appeared and crossed out ‘Apple.’ “Beetlejuice?” she said, then smiled. 

“Oooooh, now I remember! Beetlejuice!” 

My eyes lit up a little, then I grabbed her wrist. 

“Beetlejuice!” she yelled, somehow figuring out she liked the sound of it. And with that, we disappeared from the sidewalk of the sleepy neighborhood 

Coffee! Yes, coffee helped me think a little clearer. Didn’t make me sober, but it was enough to make me at least talk and think strait. Taking a sip of the liquid inside the plastic cup, I sat on my bed looking at a pissed off Beetlejuice like a little girl who knew she did something wrong. And I didn’t really do anything! 

“Thanks, BJ...”

“Don’t ya’ mean Blow Job?” he struck at me. Okay, so maybe I deserved that at least. Making fun of my best friend’s name was the last thing I’d ever do, and at the time I really wished I could take it back. 

“Are ya feelin’ allright now?” he softened up a little. I nodded. He lowered his feet to the ground and stopped floating in front of me. 

“Wait, where’s the truck?” I asked, just remembering it, and looked around, expecting it to be in my room for some reason. 

“Took care of that; it’s in the driveway. Now, why the hell were you drinking?!”

“Alright, don’t tell! I wasn’t drinking, okay? I faintly remember what happened, but I know I wasn’t drinking!”

“Then tell me what you remember, god dammit!” I wanted to scream back at him but Delia would hear me more than him. Just like the handbook for the recently deceased stated, people don’t usually notice the strange and unusual. Why couldn’t no one be home? That way I can yell all I wanted to. But then again, he was worried about me, and I didn’t call his name like he would have wanted me to. Taking a deep breath, I calmed down and told him all I could faintly remember. 

“Claire and her boyfriends forced the stuff down my throat. I don’t remember how, but I guess they pinned me down or something!” I explained, motioning to the bruises on my arms.

BJ was quiet for a minute, and stared intently at a book on my desk. He leaned against the wall rather than just stand there with his arms crossed, and shoved his hands in his pockets. 

“So that explains why the hell you’re drunk,” he muttered and cursed under his breath.

Percy jumped on to my bed, just now coming out from under it, and rubbed against my arm. I lifted my hand and scratched his head gently. The old fur ball purred and I smiled slightly. Then BJ spoke up, 

“Are you going somewhere?” he asked without taking his eyes off the book. I looked at him confused. 

“No, I’m not going anywhere.”

“On the sidewalk, before I brought ya home, you said you were really gonna miss me.”

Oh shit. Did I really?!

Dammit. I wanted to tell him while I was sober.

“Oh, yeah, I was going to tell you tomorrow while we were at the shocking mall,” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Just blurt it out and get it over with, 

“I’m going to college!” I smiled and raised my arms as if to say ‘TA DAA!’

His eyebrows raised and he just stared at me for a moment. Then a slight twitched tugged at his lips and he sighed. 

“And you didn’t tell me earlier because?”

“I didn’t know how to,” I spoke silently.

“I wanted to tell you so bad, but you seemed so excited that I didn’t have to worry about school anymore, I thought I would tell you some time later.” His nose wrinkled and I started up again before he could, 

“I’m sorry, BJ, I should have told you earlier!” The last thing I wanted after my graduation was for my best friend to be mad at me. Ignoring what I had just said, Beetlejuice closed his eyes and couldn’t help but smile a little at how pathetic this was, how I didn’t tell him in the first place and how mad he was getting about this. 

“How long will ya be attending it?”

“Four years,” I muttered, wincing because I knew what was coming next.

“Are you fucking serious?!”

I didn’t say anything, I just nodded. It was coming sooner or later, anyways. 

“It’s not like I’m gonna be gone for an eternity, BJ. And you’re able to visit!”

“Do you really want to go, though?” he asked, sounding a little hurt that I was leaving. 

“BJ...”

“Answer my question.”

“Well, I want a decent job to take care of myself with!”

“I could take care of you,” he snorted. I paused for a minute and thought about it. Grubs and beetles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was okay with Beetlejuice eating those things, but I wouldn’t like to try them out for myself. But then again, being with him makes me feel secure, like I have a place somewhere in this world after all. Living with him might even be better! No, I needed to have my own life. I wasn’t going to give him the bother of taking care of me, I needed to learn how to take care of myself. As much as I want to be with him...I just can’t. The thought made my cheeks turn red, and then his too with embarrassment. Shaking my head, I tried to explain, 

“Look, BJ, I would love to live with you, but, c’mon, lets be realistic. My parents are gonna want to visit, friends would love to have parties where I live, someone’s gonna want to come by and visit on birthdays, anniversaries, etc.”

He wasn’t moved. 

“Your point?”

“I’m saying, I need my own home! And I need a job to keep it, BJ. I mean, come on, Kindergarten is a requirement for a license to drive people crazy! Who knows what kind of education you need to get a good paying job in the neitherworld? Let alone in the world of the living.”

BJ sighed. He finally got my point, or so I hoped. 

“Where’s your college?” he asked. I smiled, thinking that he might just be letting me go after all. But somewhat, it hurt to see him just give up like that.

“It’s the Performing Arts School in Nashville Tennessee.”

“That far?”

“At least it’s away from this hell.”

He didn’t really reply to that and took a deep breath. 

“Well, I guess I could come visit, like you said,” he murmured. I wish it wasn’t so hard for him. I mean, the guy’s known me since I was in seventh grade, for crying out loud. It’s gonna be difficult for him to just let me go to college after just now finding out. 

“I was thinking you and Doomie could give the ride there. Like a nice road trip, just the three of us!” I began to talk out my ass. BJ shook his head shamefully and the silence killed our attempts to speak up again. Looking down at my empty coffee cup, Beetlejuice flicked his wrist and it was full again. Standing up, I stumbled over to him and offered him a drink. That might work? He looked at it for a second and shrugged it off. It was worth a shot, I guess.

“BJ...”

“Dun worry, babes,” he tugged a smile and looked away. 

“Beetlejuice, what’s the matter?” I sympathized. He emotionally pushed me away and stared at that same book that was resting on my desk. What the hell? Why was he staring at it? 

“BJ, look at me.” He didn’t reply, not even with movement. 

“Look at me,” I tried again, pulling his chin my way so that we were seeing each other eye to eye. Well, to do that I had to make him look down a little too (damn his tallness). Taking a huge hand, he pulled mine off his face and glared down at me. Attempting to pull my wrist away for the second time tonight, I snared a bit in annoyance. Closing my eyes, I sighed. 

“I know you’re upset, BJ-”

“It should be obvious,” he cut me off.

“Just hear me out.”

“What if I dun wanna?”

“Why are you being so difficult?!”

“I thought that shouldda been obvious too.”

“Well, it is, but-”

“Then why the hell are you asking?”

“Beetlejuice, stop!”

With that, he froze. It was the second time I had said it so far, third time and he’s gone. As mad at me as he was, it was apparent he didn’t want to leave just yet. 

“Now just listen,” I said clearly in a low voice, 

“I know I should have told you earlier, and you have every right to be mad. Just hear my apology, please!”

He didn’t reply, he just sat there and stared down at me with the same glaring expression on his face. I took that as a ‘go on’ and started to apologize. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, and I’m sorry you had to find out while I was wasted. Please, forgive me, BJ.”

Silence filled the room a minute. Several sickening seconds passed and he finally took in a breath and decided to continue being an ass about it. 

“Apology not accepted.”

My hands balled up and I couldn’t help but just to swing wildly and hit him in the face and just watch him topple over from surprise and dizziness.

My eyes snapped open from being squeezed shut and I realized that didn’t really happen. I never did hit him, it was just me imagining what I wanted. 

“If you’re going to be like that, then fine!” I yanked my wrist away from him, 

“Unless you realize that you’re being ridiculous, then that will be the last thing you will have ever said to me!” I held back the tears for just one more life wasting minute and then yelled, but not loud enough to get past the door, one last time for one night.

“BEETLEJUICE!”

And he was gone.

Honestly, I didn’t know why I didn’t want to accept her apology. But at the moment, I couldn’t really care less. 

“Fine!” I yelled up to the ceiling of my room that I had just randomly appeared in. Muttering and cursing rants under my breath, I stood up and kicked my coffin bed and headed for the door. Opening the entrance to my room, I stopped before I stepped over the threshold and couldn’t help but sneer unpleasantly. Ginger and Jacques were glaring back, both had their arms crossed and neither looked happy, curious, confused, or whatever other emotion they have when they usually appear on my doorstep. 

“What do you losers want?”

“Must you make so much noise?” Ginger complained, and Jacques gritted his teeth. 

“Not to mension that you must ‘ave dun sumthing preetty bad for Miz Lydia to send you back ‘erself,” Bonehead continued to glare. I had to say, neither of them are stupid, Jacques especially. If it only took them a minute to come out of their rooms and appear on my doorstep knowing something was wrong, they had more brains then I did, I’d have to admit. Well, Ginger might not, considering that she doesn’t even know how to dance, but Jacques sure does. 

“I just need some fresh air,” I muttered and pushed passed them, leaving them stranded and confused in the hallway.

Back then, when Lyds was a kid, we had nothing to worry about. Not too much school work, no growing up and leaving, nothing. The only thing we feared was sand worms, and, hell, we even took care of those things ourselves! Like when Lyd’s pep talking saved me from myself and gave me the guts to save a baby, and when I myself scared a sandworm away from her when she was almost eaten. That time I was on such a high horse she couldn’t even call me, yet she still forgave me for almost letting her be killed. Lyds was tolerant. That’s probably one of the things I loved about her, was that she can stand me. So much shit has taken place from then to now and...I don’t even think she can stand me no more. The way I had just not accepted her apology and had acted violently when I grabbed her wrist had probably sucked the tolerance right out of her!

Suddenly, I felt bad. Terribly bad, for just standing there and allow myself to break her like that. I don’t know how she’s going to develop after that, but if it affects her at all I think I might as well go and feed myself to a sand worm right now. But then again, what am I worrying for? Lydias tough, she can handle it. What’s happened to me? Before I met her, I was as heartless as can be, I got whatever I wanted, and could get away with almost anything. But now...now I can’t even break a promise. I can no longer cross my fingers, and it’s all because of her. She had shaped me to something I didn’t think I ever would be; friendly and lovable. What I would give, no, what I would kill to be able to have the freedom to do what I want again. The strange thing is is that, I don’t even know if I want it. I want to want it, but I just don’t want it...if that makes any sense?

While ranting on in my mind I stopped and took a good look at my surroundings. Where the hell was I? Somehow I had ventured somewhere down town. Taking a detour to wherever it was I was heading, I lifted my feet off the ground and began to float back to the Roadhouse. It was late at night, Jacques and Ginger had to be asleep by now. Thank god. I didn’t want to put up with them in the doorway again. A good long walk was all I needed. Mostly to just get her off of my mind long enough for some good night’s sleep.

The annoying sound of laughter arose from that annoying clock on the night stand next to her large bed. I felt my tail flick slightly as the sunlight poured into the room. 

“Shit,” I heard my mistress sigh under her breath. I perked an ear and lifted my head from the foot of her large bed, and stared at her a moment before realizing that she was upset by the time of day. Had she not of wanted to awake this early, she would have turned the alarm off herself. Hell, even I knew that.

As she cursed continuously to herself, I drug in a deep breath and let it out slowly, waiting for my time to come. The time where my departure from this world carries me to the place beyond this household. Standing up and opening my jaws as wide as they could in a satisfying yawn, I raised off the spider web comforter and stretched these old bones as far as they’d go. Arch the back and stretched the front, then push forward and stretch the back. The first daily exorcises of my life, day after day after day. As satisfying a tongue bath sounded right now, she intrigued me more than she would on any other given day. 

“Good morning, Percy," Lydia greeted me sleepily and headed for the closet. I replied with a light meow, since these cursed lips could form no other word, and purred.

She and the striped one had been arguing again. Though I do not know why. As much as I would have loved to prove how loyal I am to Lydia by taking her side, the most I could do was comfort her by sitting there by her on the bed. A hiss and a scratch at that stupid oaf, and she wouldn’t be happy with me. If I had failed to make her happy, I don’t know what I must do. Lydia had always taken care of me, and it was my goal to return the favor. I just never knew how.

Lydia appeared from her closet, dressed in the usual daily clothes of her routine. Though today was different. She didn’t have to leave for school, for that was no longer required. But she brought out a few large bags, and set them on the bed. One I noticed, was where she collected her clothes, and so far that was the only one she filled up. Could she be possibly waiting to gain something before completing the other two? I couldn’t of known, I was a cat for god’s sake.

“Percy,” my Mistress sighed and rested a hand on the slightly filled bag,

“I don’t know what to do. BJ...he just doesn’t seem happy for me. You understand, right?”

No, not really.

“Maybe I should go tell I’m him sorry for how I acted last night when he had just found out that I was leaving. Maybe if I did that ,he’d apologize back for behaving the way he did?”

You’re talking to a cat, lady. How the hell should I know?

As much as I would love to speak the way she did in a reply, I couldn’t. Instead, I sat there and meowed slowly, slightly inching forward as if to indicate, 

“Do what you can. There’s not a lot of time to sit and think if you’re leaving in a few days.” My whiskers twitched after doing so. God I hated being old. But I guess it wasn’t all that bad. Being old makes me lazy. Okay, lazy-ER, after all I am naturally lazy in the first place. But being lazy-ER makes me somewhat more interested in my surroundings.

My mistress is leaving. And as much as I wanted to hop into one of those large bags and make her take me with her, I couldn’t. I felt like a mother cat watching her Kittens grow up and get adopted. And that’s precisely what she was doing; growing up. Nature prevents me from stopping her, it was Lydia’s time to shine. Unsatisfying, yes, but stoppable? No. I couldn’t help that she was going to be gone for the rest of my days within the next few, if I ever make it to be that old, anyways.

God, I’m hungry.

Lydia sighed carefully and stepped to the center of the room. I followed. Standing there and closing her eyes she chanted that oaf’s name three times. 

“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!” As she did this I tried to get her attention by rubbing against her leg. A loud meow was all I could form my voice to, but what I really wanted to say was 

“Feed me, god dammit.”

No longer was I hungry, though, as I meowed and screeched in anger and fear. The room had changed, and now looked like a dungeon. I was back there, again! Back to that wretched hell when I was captured by that sickening old witch! Not that again. No! I didn’t want to be here. But Lydia didn’t seem to mind my presence. She didn’t seem to notice that I was there in the Neitherworld with her. Carelessly jogging up the stairs, I frantically followed, meowing complaints.

I was too old for this. My vet told me I shouldn’t be running! Leaping through the entrance to the neither world and out the floating door leading to home, I tried to keep up with Lydia. But this just wasn’t good for me. Eventually running out of breath, I slowed down and lost her when that weird looking dog barked wildly at me. That ass hole hadn’t aged a bit. 

“Hi Poopsie!” I heard Lydia say, but then her voice faded. And before I knew it, I was stranded and lost in the place of the afterlife.


	5. Remember The Good Times

The roadhouse was only a few steps away, I had realized. What was I thinking? I was too intimidated to do this. Percy didn’t say anything to motivate me. That silly old cat probably doesn’t even understand a word I even say to him. Coming here and talking to Beetlejuice after what had happened last night was easier said than done. And as a result to my hesitation, I froze, my hand slightly raised at my side, ready to grip the chain.

Pulling it away I let it fall to my side again and let out a disappointed sight. Disappointed, because I didn’t have the guts to talk to him. He intimidated me, especially when he was mad. Usually, I never showed my fear towards BJ. He was my best friend, I didn’t have a reason to be scared. But when the fact that he was my friend was on the line, if it were gone and he hated me enough he has just the right amount of power to skin me alive with just the flick of the wrist. Maybe more.

Dark thoughts blackened all hopes of talking to BJ in the first place, and I winced back away from the door. Jacques and Ginger probably haven’t awaken yet, otherwise they would have discovered that I was standing there at the doorstep by now. Blankly staring at the skull bell by the door, I grimaced to myself.

Just walk in, don’t ring it, I decided. Opening the door and silently stepping in, I carefully walked through the first room and into the hallway to BJ’s door. It was cracked open, inside nothing but empty darkness. Pushing the door cautiously, I slowly stepped over the threshold and flicked on the light. It was empty, and still a pig sty. Never had I thought it would change.

The place was absolutely revolting, yet for some reason the sudden change from cleanliness to...to this hadn’t phased me a bit. Still using silent steps, I ventured towards the coffin bed. With a sigh of relief, I murmured under my breath. He wasn’t there. BJ wasn’t anywhere in the roadhouse. 

“BJ...” I murmured, and turned around to leave. What was I thinking? He’s probably out somewhere doing something important.

“Lydia honey, aren’t you going to go shopping for supplies?” The sing song tone of my step mother questioned as I slumped down the stairs into the living room. 

“I was,” I sighed and poored myself a cup of coffee and began stirring sugar and cream into it. 

“Actually, I think I might go now.”

“That’s great honey. I hope you find everything you need there!” she smiled. Damn, her smiles were always so big.

I was tempted to see if I could get Doomie out into the other world without BJ’s help and take him with me for a drive, but it wouldn’t work. That just goes to show that, everything I’ve ever done in the past and ever wanted to do wouldn’t have happened if I had never taken the time to call his name three times that one night so many years ago. Come to think of it, all I have ever dreamed of came true in just one night. I was finally happy, I actually started to smile, and within every second of all those years, I avoided cutting myself and committing suicide just to see him each and every day. He of all people understood me as much as he accepted me. I’m not saying he’s the only one who has ever accepted me, I’m saying that he out of all people that have accepted me actually understood me.

Pushing the key into the ignition, I waited and smiled to myself as the truck roared itself to life. Thinking of Beetlejuice made me feel distant. I didn’t even realize that I was driving until’ a clap of thunder had brought me back down to earth. Well shit. It was raining. Struggling to turn the windshield wipers on, I swerved slightly to keep the truck on the road.

My nose scrunched with frustration until’ I finally got them to work. Thank god. Clutching the steering wheel, I sat back in with a satisfied sigh. Oh how I had always loved the rain. Especially when it poored down real hard, how the sound of it hitting the earth soothed me. Sometimes I wish that when it rained, time would just stop. But then again I wish it would go by faster, so I could get this whole damned shopping thing done. As far as my luck had been running lately, it might take a hell of a while getting my shopping list out of the way. And how I could tell this so soon was how full the mall parking lot had been when I started to search for a spot.

Where the hell was I going? I had mentally decided to go back to the Roadhouse four times, and every time I hadn’t gone anywhere near the place. Not once.

Stopping and staring blankly around me, I felt my eyebrows narrow slightly in annoyance. Damn her. Damn her to hell. She had messed me up. Badly. Lydia was the kind of person who I could literally, not stop thinking about. And I really wanted to, just for a little bit. But I couldn’t! Why did I care so much that she was leaving? Why the hell can’t I just leave the thought alone?!

I felt my fingers flex and punched the side of the nearest building. People passing by sped their pace and tried to get as far away as they could at the moment, like I was going to attack them next. Or, that’s what they feared, at least.

Where to go; what to do? I didn’t have anything I needed to do at the moment. What was I waiting for? Easter? Deciding I better actually go home this time, I started for the roadhouse and actually made it there without changing my mind.

Opening the door and lazily floating in, it hit me. A smell, a sent so familiar I was shocked that I would be smelling it here of all places. My eyes widened and I immediately followed the scent to my room, where for a minute it grew stronger, but then faded. Was this...Lydia’s scent?

Lydia was here?

Why the hell?

“She did look quite upset,” a small voice murmured in the silence of my room as my body tensed. It was Ginger. 

“You two knew she was here?!”

“We deedn’t say anyzing to ‘er,” Jacques frowned. 

“Miz Lydia deedn’t evon know we ‘ere watching ‘er.”

Thank god they didn’t say anything to her. 

“But why did ya jus watch her and not let ‘er know you were there?” I asked, my voice edgy from curiosity as well as surprise. 

“We didn’t want to bother her. She looked scared, and worried. Jacques and I figured that if we bothered her she’d fear we would tell you.”

“And you just did,” I spat. 

“Yez, but either way, beetlejoose, you would ‘ave found out.” That was true. I knew Lyd’s scent anywhere, and it was all over the place here. 

“How long ago was she here?”

“About half an hour,” Ginger sighed. My shoulders dropped. Why would she have come here? I thought I knew Lyds better than that, than to just come here on her own. Nonetheless had she just come to stand in my room for a few minutes and leave. 

“Well,” I sighed and stood there facing the two, 

“I guess that means it’s my turn to go bug her.” My body formed into a large roach, and then I quickly poofed out of sight.

Well, Lyds wasn’t anywhere in her room, I had noticed when I took place as a picture on her wall. A frown tugged at my lips as I spotted three suitcases on her bed, one of them filled slightly with clothes. The anger that boiled deep down took me over for a second, and the suitcase flew across the room and hit the wall. All the clothes that were inside of it were thrown out everywhere around the room, just like how they were last night. Which, I still didn’t get how Lydia had managed to pick it all up in one night.

Okay, so she wasn’t in her room. Now it was time to go check the kitchen. Taking place of the triangular clock on the wall, I peered around in there. Nope, no Lydia. Glad she wasn’t there too, because the horrid smell of Delia’s cooking was about to set off the fire alarm, and I didn’t want to stick around for that.

Lydia’s room; check. Kitchen; check. Where else would she be, then? Living room? I Poofed randomly around the house and to every god damn room they had, and found no sign of her. Popping up in the garage, I looked around. No one was here, or in hearing or seeing range.

I took the shape of a toolbox and headed for the garage door, and then spent another five minutes attempting to hop onto a shelf. Why the hell didn’t I just poof up there? Looking out the window on the door, I sighed. It was pouring down rain out there.

Reminded of the time when Lyds had tried to house that baby skunk in the middle of that one storm, about six years ago. And then there was that big fit we had about the skeletons that had built up in my closet for so long. Everyone was starting to find out that I was more of a troublemaker than they had thought, and I was almost dead...again. But with the help of just one little 12-year-old girl, how much power she had over me at the time saved me. Saved us. Lydia had always been able to get the truth out of me, and how bad I had always hated that fact about her. I would tell her anything, and still would, without hesitation if she really wanted it.

“The TRUTH, Beetlejuice! Tell the truth about something! Like...whose your best friend?”

“Well, I uh... shucks, Lydia. You’re my best friend!”

That truth sent all the skeletons away. That one little sentence, admitting that she of all people was most important to me, saved my ass. Sniffling to myself at the memory, I noticed the driveway was half empty. Lyds was somewhere in the rain, hopefully coming back soon. Then it came to me. I knew what I was gonna get her! I’ll make it up to her with a present; her graduation present! And I know just what to do!

I guess luck was on my side after all? Running out into the rain and to the truck as fast as I could, I kept the receipt tucked away in my pocket. 

“Just pull up over there a few doors down, and we’ll bring out all your purchases so you don’t have to make several trips in the rain.” That had to be the most clever thing the mall could come up with on a rainy day like this.

When I turned the key an the truck was unlocked, I looked up at the dreary skies before hopping in. I could feel my eyes watering up, and I couldn’t tell if any of the drops running down my face were rain drops or tears. Wonder what Beetlejuice was doing...probably sitting in the neitherworld somewhere, flirting with one of the most beautiful ghouls he had ever seen.

Oh how fast the years have passed. It feels like a hundred years had gone by since the time BJ and I had celebrated our first anniversary for being best friends. Digging deep into the pocket of my jacket, I had found the one thing I had treasured most. The spider broach he had gone through so much trouble to get. Baby-sitting so many little critters just to get the money, and then almost dying when he saved one of them from a hungry sandworm. 

“Oh, Beetlejuice,” I sniffled and got into the car. Realizing that I had become drenched from the memory, I brought the engine to life with the pull of a wrist and pulled it out of the parking spot and where the clerk had directed me.

Just as he promised, the pile of crap that I had just bought, and should have been prepared with earlier, was there waiting for me by a young gentleman.

Lets fast forward through this boring bit of driving home.

Collapsing on my bed, I let go of the many bags filled with curtains, bed spreads, and other things needed to keep myself supplied at my dorm. To get away from this hell, I might as well settle to stay in a dorm all four years. Everything else I needed was either already in my room, or I just didn’t really need it all that much. Opening my tired eyes, I sat up and yelled. The clothes that I had attempted packing earlier were everywhere. It was a disaster area! I closed my eyes and held them shut, taking in a deep breath. I had a good guess who would have done this, but I should just ask around before directly accusing anyone.

My footsteps were loud as I thumped down the stairs. 

“Mooom-”

“Honey, have you seen Percy anywhere? I’ve been looking for him while you were gone, but not a single trace of him was found!”

“Trying to feed him last night’s leftovers?” I sighed. 

“Yes, but I can’t seem to find him so, I guess they’re going to have to go to waste. So what is it you need, Lydia?”

Before I could answer it came to me. He had been rubbing against my legs and trying to get my attention when I was going to the neitherworld! When I had just ignored him, I had also dragged him there with me. Which meant that Percy was somewhere in the neitherworld, just like that one Halloween! 

“Oh, it was nothing! But I gotta go up into my room and start packing, see ya!” And then I ran upstairs.

“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!” I yelled as I spun around in the center of my room. Man, he must be really busy if both times he hadn’t realized I had entered the neitherworld. Silence filled the room as I waited for him to show, but then I had something more to worry about. My cat was lost in the neitherworld, and I had to find him.

A long while had passed since when I first started. Several times I had been rejected by people, and I was growing tired of looking.

My arm hurt. Several times so far I had mistaken neitherworld cats for my cat. And each time I had at least two more scratches added to my new collection. 

“Percy!” I called into an alley I hadn’t checked yet. Neitherworld alley’s were scarier than normal ones. A trash can with pulsing tentacles sat in the entrance, and at least attempted to grab at me. I flinched and inched past it, sneaking into the blackness of lord knows what. This was creepy. No, beyond creepy. There was sludge and trash everywhere, and it was absolutely revolting! It somewhat reminded me of BJ’s room.

My thoughts were interrupted by a stack of greasy boxes toppled over. 

“Percy?” To my relief, it was! Percy shakily emerged from the boxes, tail between legs, and I ran over to him. 

“Percy I’m so glad you’re allri-” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

A hand came from the darkness behind me and began to pull me in before I could pick Percy up and count my blessings. Trying as hard as I could to pull away, another hand wrapped around my weist and pulled me in, and then I lost control of my body. I flailed and struggled, but eventually grew limp. There was no pain, there was no lack of breath in me. But for some reason I felt lightheaded, as if I had been losing blood all this time.

And then it was dark.


	6. Not Good

What the hell? She was right there! Lydia was right in front of me, and then she was pulled right back into the blackness that ate the back of the alleyway. Of course, I had taken cover behind the boxes after hours of searching for relief. Millions of ugly ghouls and ghosts had acknowledged my presence by kicking me aside. And the place behind the boxes seemed safest of all the corners in this wretched dump.

None the less, to the bit of weirdness going on, had my tail flicked with a sudden spasm of energy. I knew by this point by the speeding heart race and the sudden burn of pain, that I was supposedly dying. Finally, I had become too old to live anymore, but will sadly not get the chance to see Lydia’s smiling face again.

But no, turns out I’m not dying. My black fur, now dull with age, grew rich from the tip of my head and grew down my body. It was as if I was becoming younger?

I only had three words to say about this.

What. The. Fuck.

Not only did I feel like I was becoming younger, but more powerful too. The canines lined up in my jaws grew larger, to the point to where I felt almost like a saber toothed tiger. Well that’s just brilliant. Not only was I getting a few more years on my back, but I had buck teeth to match! It was like going to heaven, and then falling back to hell. At least, that’s what it felt like for the moments passed. Eventually my body grew to match the size of my teeth. The rich blackness of my body was now the size of the cars passing by this filthy alley.

Still looking like a normal house cat, my claws were now large enough to cover a decent sized dinner plate like the ones we had back home. But just as much power I was feeling in the transformation, there was pain that followed. The bone meshing pain that I should have felt during the process.

Roaring out loud enough that several civilians had noticed me went screaming down the sidewalk, I collapsed on the ground, my size shaking whatever earth this was. I felt my side rise and fall as I took deep breaths, and lie there for a moment, waiting for the pain to stop.

But only long enough to jump up at a certain lust. A lust for blood, any type, any kind. I didn’t care, I wanted blood in general. Meat, blood, all of it the same.

After a while, my energy spasm from some sort of transformation faded, and I had toppled to the ground again. Eyes closing, I took a deep breath. The pain was amazing, the cracking of bones heard each time a little part of me moved, like my tail for example. It hurt to get up, it hurt to breathe. Each time my muscles flexed, the bones beneath them cracked into place, as if waiting for years to be popped.

This morning I woke up an old fluff ball, now I was something else entirely. I didn’t die like I’d had hoped for a while now, just to end the pain of an old person, but was reborn. Supernatural realization comes easily to animals with high senses. And just as well as Lydia, I was able to see the poltergeist, and more.

Every night, and every sickening seconds wasted passing by a scene of death no matter how many years ago, I was able to see whom was placed there, waiting for their first few years of haunting to end. Opening my eyes, I sighed. How long had I been cat napping? No, that’s not the question. The real question is, how the hell could I cat nap? That would always be a mystery to me.

“Well ladies and gentleman, I think we have ourselves a newly born Bakeneko.”

My eyes snapped and I jumped up, arching my back in surprised defense. Every movement still making a bone crunching sound. I swallowed the temptation to roar and run away from the pain as well as the neitherworldian dog catcher standing in the entrance of the alleyway. The world beyond the alley’s entrance seemed like a bright light as the dog catcher’s shadow casted over me and he blocked almost all light pouring into the alley.

“What are you going to do with it?” a mother ghoul asked, holding her child protectively. “Well ma’am there’s only one thing to do.”

I watched as the black shadow that blocked the white light of the world outside of this darkness pulled something out, and then speak into it as it made a sound like ripping paper almost. “Evacuate the east side of the neitherworld. We have a newly born bakeneko on the loose. Make sure everyone in that area is safe while we hunt it down.”

What the hell was a bakeneko?

Was he talking about me?!

Shit!

Hearing this, I hissed and ran up the wall to my right, making it to the roof top and stopped for a moment. The random action made me look down into the alley again, everyone who was on the sidewalk ran and screamed for salvation, as if I were going to destroy all of them. Wow, didn't know I could un up walls. I felt like spidercat! My attention turned to several trucks similar to the dog catcher’s that had pulled up along side the building I was on.

Well isn’t this just my day.

Oh how I wished I was small again, not the size of a freakin’ horse! Just the thought of growing small again so I could at least hide would have been perfect and... what the crap? I twisted my body so that I could almost get a good look at myself. Was I getting smaller again? Yes! Yes! I was shrinking! What joy, to be small again so I can hide better! Still on the roof top, I looked around. Sirens of police cars sounded, attempting to evacuate the area.

No longer content with my position, I ran to the edge of the building and took a good leap to the next apartment.

Landing on a windowsill, a few stories down, I counted my blessings. The window was open. If I were human, I’d be doing a victory dance of some kind, but I’m not. Not right now.

“Harold, where the hell is that boy?!” The sudden sound of the inhabitants in the apartment startled me, and I ran in and hid under the couch in front of an old TV. “Pearl, I don’t know, just get off my back for a day, allright?!” A gruff voice replied. The scowling house wife/ghoul emerged from the kitchen, holding a rolling pin in two of her hands, each smacking the palm of her other two. She had a normal figure other than the four arms, almost human-like if it wasn’t for the green skin. Other than that, she had a nice shape. Looked quite tasty too, but I had to keep myself down. “Harold you tell me right now where Ryan is or so help me I will beat it out of ya!”

Sheesh, lady!

The mumbling man whom was sitting on the couch switched the channel and began to talk before Pearl raised one of her rolling pins as a threat that she’d actually hit him, “Don’t get your panties tied in a knot! He’s upstairs in his room, allright? He’s safe! Good lord, woman, having to get answers out of me every second of my life,” he started to rumble under his breath as the woman rolled her eyes and disappeared into the kitchen.

Into the shadows, I ran out from underneath the couch and up the stairs. Once I was out of their sight, I padded slightly into the first room. Damn, bathroom. The next room was Harold and Pearl’s. And then finally, ah hah! Ryan’s room! Whoever the hell Ryan is. I slid through the opening and into his room. This would be interesting.

A young boy, Lydia’s age by the looks of it, with only two arms sat in the darkness of the room, lit only by the faint light of a computer screen. Well he didn’t inherit Pearl’s four arms, that’s for sure.

His hair was longish, but only went past his ears, it didn’t go anywhere near his shoulders. It was a dark brown color, and his skin was pale. That’s all I could see from the back. His shoulders were hunched, and I could hear the faint clicking repeatedly and endlessly. He was doing something. “Okay, I’m back,” a voice called from the desk. It wasn’t him, was he talking on the phone? Yeah, that’s what he was doing. Ryan picked up something from his desk and raised it to his ear. “Allright, well I hacked into her account. She doesn’t have anything interesting.”

“Dude, are you seriously? I think you’re being a little harsh. When are you going to stop playin’ and get yourself a real ghoul?” Thank god my ears are strong enough to hear their conversation from here in the shadows of Ryan’s dark room. “Alex, don’t make me laugh. Ghouls are nothing, they just want to get into your pants. It’s fun to play with them, y’know?” Ryan snickered into the phone. “Ryan, this isn’t funny. One of these days someone’s not going to just sit back and cry after they find out you only used and played them. You have too many ghouls wrapped around your finger.”

“Exactly.”

“So what are you gonna do if this one gets back at you. She does look almost human like you, but trust me dude, she was built to murder.”

“And how do you know this?”

“Have you seenher parents? Her father has the ability to rip a car in half with his bare hands, and her mother has taken care of several sandworms, on her own. This ghoul has the ability to rip your head off, with just a twitch of her pinkie.”

“Don’t scare me. Just like all the others, she’d be too hurt to actually do anything about it.”

Man, whoever this Ryan kid was, he was cruel. I mean really cruel. He was playing all these girls because it was fun? This kid is an ass. “Anyway, thanks for the warning dude, but I need to finish up her account if I want this one to squeal.” And then he clicked a button on the phone and set it down.

The size of my body began to grow again, and just to avenge all of those whom he hurt, I growled, closing in behind him and sat there, waiting. It wasn't just the fact that I was avenging a few afterlives in this room that made me thrist for this boy'd blood. Oh no, it was entirely something else. It was like my throat was on fire, like I had been in a desert for weeks without water. The thought of blood splattering and other contents of the sort running down my throat made the fire there a little less painful. Growling deeply, my chest vibrated, my jaws stretching out and hissing slightly, only he couldn't here that. “What the hell do you want, you useless mutt,” Ryan began to turn around but then choked on his own words. “What the shit-” but I had cut him off.

\---

The lifeless body of Ryan lay spread in the darkness of his room, and I sat there sneering down at the blood now splashed all over my fur. That had felt so relaxing. Never in my life had I enjoyed killing. That was actually my first real kill. Suddenly, Ihad lusted for more. Much more. Though I had to get under control if I wanted to make it past these dog catchers. Wrinkling my nose and then calming down, I felt myself rise on two feet and smile slyly. The light switch was pulled on and I stared contentedly down at my doings. The room now filled with light. Well, whatever a bakeneko I now was, I was now able to take this dumbshit’s shape.

Modeling the look in the mirror, I slightly saw the reason most of the ghouls fell for him. His hair covered his eyes, which were pure black, and his smile was strait teeth but fanged. He wasn’t a vampire, but he sure looked it. His hands were almost like claws, and I smiled menacingly at how I could pass myself off as a citizen.

That’s right, as long as I was dressed in this black bands shirt with ‘It's The Pitts’ on it and baggy blue jeans with ghetto sneakers, I could probably do whatever I wanted. And to start off with my new to do list, I was going to go find Lydia. Sadly, though, the nice dinner the boy had given me with his own body wasn't really enough. There was too much passion for murder in me at the moment to let me just waltz out of the house. Instead, I went down stairs and claimed Harold and Pearl for myself as well. Okay, now I was able to take three shapes, but sticking with Ryan's was probably my best bet.

This time, I was completely content. No more burning in the throat, and no more feeling my stomach eat itself. I had devourd all three of them, bone and all. It was weird how I had accomplished that. I didn't really feel scared of a lot of things now. Now that people were running from mefor a change, I had a feeling that I shouldn't be scared at all. Leaving the bloody mess in the house, I walked out the door and closed it behind me to banish suspicion. Then I headed back to the alley where I last saw Lyds, only for aquick minute to get a sniff of who had been with her before she disappeared.

The wierdest part about the scents of Lydia and her stranger at the back of the alley was, that he had apparently dragged her about five feet into the blackness. And then they just...disappeared...

***

Lydia was going to be so happy when she got my present! It took a while, but my old arts and crafts skills aren’t too rusty after all. Lifting up what I had created for my bestest friend in the whole wide world, I smiled. A photo album, of every memory that has ever happened here in the neither world.

See? I had pictures from the time we first built Doomie, and when we went camping out in the woods with Bertha and Prudence! Flipping through to make sure all the insects, spiders, and any other things that spiked Lydia’s interest was good as gold, I smiled proudly to myself. Oh, she was going to love this! I probably might have gotten her jewlry, but I just couldn’t find anything good. And besides, that just wasn't really me at all to get a girl jewelry, now was it? A scrap book; well, Lydia was special to me. If anyone did question my actions on giving her memories rather than diamonds, I honestly wouldn't care. She was my best friend.

Now to just add the final touches and ta daa! It was now wrapped in purple spider wrapping paper with a black spider web ribbon making a bow at the top in a square-like box. Soft tissue paper sat inside the box around the scrap book so that if I get into trouble it will at least stay safe.

“Several murders were discovered today in the Neitherworld,” What the fuck? I looked over at the TV from the other side of the living room. Rarely were there murders comitted in the Neitherworld, mostly because we all couldn’t really killeach other a second time. The conseqences were just too great for that. Not to mention the fact that it was hard. “One of them including Bully the Crud, most feared ghoul of the west,” the reporter’s face shifted a little to show how uncomfortable she was announcing this. “Bully the Crud?!” I cried out loud. Who could have gotten close to killing thatguy?! I tuned out the television when it dropped the subject and turned to another monster-thing on the loose. Bakeneko? What the shit was that?

Biting my nails I silently ranted to myself in my head. So Bully the Crud was dead. As in, someone had killed him.

Without traces of suspects, apparently.

Shuddering at his name I sighed. Bully was someone whom I had a good fear of in the past. He had almost married Lydia, and if it weren’t for the fact that I need her, she’d be washing his dishes right now. Not only that, but might just be dead along with him, if whoever killed him wanted his whole family dead.

Ah, who cared, he was burden to the town anyway. As soon as he got tired of getting thrown in BBQ sauce every time he came back, he eventually murdered the mayor and ran the town himself. As long as he didn’t come to the city, we were all fine. And now he was dead, so what was the fuss?

Anyway, I needed to get to Lydia’s world, to hurry up and give her this god damned present before it was too late. It took about a whole day, but hey, anythin’ for you, babes!

When I stepped outside the roadhouse, all sense was lost. Was that Lydia’s door to the real world that was floating in the distance? Or was that just me being a dumbass? Well, for one I know I didn’t put a floating door in the sky, so that had to be Lydia’s. Scratching my head, I just sat there and stared at it a moment. Why would Lyds be in the neitherworld again? I shrugged it off and floated up to the door and peered in. She couldn't be here anymore. Maybe she forgot to close the door last time she came by?

Floating through and making it to the other door to the real world, I felt myself fall in the middle of her floor and groan. “Lyds?” I asked. No answer.

“Oh Charles, where on earth could she be?!” I heard Delia’s shakey voice cry. Perking my ears slightly, I walked out into the hall and towards the top of the steps. Peering out, I saw Charles and Delia sitting, huddled together on the couch while two officers stood in the center of the room, one writing on a notepad and the other just standing there with his arms crossed. “We can’t find her anywhere. The truck is still here, but she isn’t!” Charles shook his head and looked down.

“When was the last time you saw her?” one of the officers asked. “Yesterday around noon. She went upstairs but we havent heard from her since.” Delia frowned. “But then around dinner time at eight, she never came downstairs. Her room left no sign of her. We figured she went out for a walk but now it’s been past twentyfour hours since she’d been home. Oh, I hope she’s allright, wherever she is...” Delia sighed shakily.

Oh for god’s sake! I finally get the guts to apologyze to her, and she turns up missing?! Lyds, you really drive me insane! Pulling myself back into Lydia’s room, I dove through the mirror and sighed.

She was gone. Lydia wasn’t anywhere seen in the Real world and I wouldn’t know if she was in the neitherworld or not. Something told me she was, though. That little voice deep in my mind saying, ‘well of course she’s in the neitherworld, dumbshit! Why else would her door be there?’ I nodded to that little voice and pulled away from the mirror that allowed me to look into her room. Lyds, I promise, I’ll do whatever it takes to find ya!

Next thing I knew, I was floating down the streets as fast as I could calling for her frantically. “Lyds! Lyds, babes, where are ya?! Speak to me! LYDS!” I didn’t care who thought I was crazy, and I didn’t care about anyone who tried to push me out of their way and called me an ass hole. All I cared about was Lydia.

If I had a heart right now, I think my chest would be too heavy for me to even walk, let alone float. After a while of racing through town and calling for my best friend, I didn’t feel like doing anything else. I was tired, I wanted to go home, but then again I didn’t.

It was as if after life for me had ended. Like I was now being sent to an eternity in a relm of nothingness. At least, that’s what I’d rather be doing right now other than looking for Lydia. Where could she have gone?! No, better yet, why would she have gone?!

This was pathetic of me. I was the Ghost with the Most, god damnit! Why would the loss of one little girl affect me so much?!

And then the answer came to me. It was just too simple to get at first!

With Lydia gone I was no Ghost with the Most. I was nothing but an average ghoul. How come she affected me so much? I want her around all the time, but sometimes I just want to push her into sandworm land. Without her, I had no meaning anywhere else. If she were dead, I’d be deader. I had crashed a wedding of hers(she didn’t want it anyway) and objected it to a large hairy beast who could snap me in half. I literally went to hell and back with that girl; No, not just with, but for. And I tell you what, I’d do it all again! And you know why?

Because I love you Lydia Deetz!! And I don’t care who knows it!

“Where am I?” was the first thing that came to mind. But when I said it, it wasn’t tired like I had just woken up, and it wasn’t questioning either. It was scared, hurt, broken. Weak.

One thing was for sure, I wasn’t scared, and I wasn’t broken. I was clueless. Clueless, and apparently kidnapped.

Standing up suddenly and hitting my head on a shelf, I cried out and clawed at the pain with my hands. I looked around grumpily, and then growled in frustration. All around me was junk, and nothing else. I was in a storage room. A very messy one, at that. The sad part was that the only exit to it was closed, and looked locked.

Angrily, I threw my body against it and flailed my hands that curled into fists at it, 

“Let me out! Let me out, please someone help!” I cried. Well, this doesn’t look like something I’d do. But I guess panic was the strongist bit of emotion in me right now that actually got the best of me.

But that panic was gone quickly. Quickly before I really could regain my breath from flailing myself into a metal push door. Peering out the window, I saw light. It was faint, and dim, yet it was still light. Across the room beyond this door, it had come to me, that the light was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It illuminated a table beneath it, showing rows of cards, and two men sat at either end of the table, each with a few cards in their hands.

One man was bigger than the other, and a honking sound rang several times from his figure before a long pause, then a faint voice grew edgy by the minute as it spoke. 

“Because, Fuzzo, if we were to let her out, then that blasted ghost wouldn’t be by himself!”

Again, the honking noise.

“How many times does he have to explain it to us? With that ghost gone, the boss agreed to let us claim ourselves as the prank pullers of the neitherworld.”

The honking noise was louder, yet had a hint of questioning to it.

“The girl? Eh, we’ll dump ‘er back into her own world once it’s all over with. She won’t be able to call for himif he’s been exorcised. Therefor, she won’t be able to make it back here to the Neitherworld at all.”

I gasped. Couldn’t help it. Scuzzo and Fuzzo was behind this?! I felt myself fume. Wait til’ Beetlejuice hears about this.

Anger overwhelmed me. He’d hear about it soon enough, for I uncontrollably began to scream and shout. 

“BEETLEJUICE, BEETLEJUICE-” Sadly I was cut off. Scuzzo’s face was suddenly right in the glass and he was yelling. 

“Call him and I swear to Neither Neither Land!” he threatened. Actually, I couldn’t really talk after that. He had pulled one of those gags, one of BJ’s gags, on me. A metal plate was now on my face, covering my mouth and muting my voice.

Anger and stress was all that could come through me right now. Pained screams fought to get past the bolted plate, but all was failed. I couldn’t call for him, and I was locked here in this stupid room until’ anything more than that had happened. Whoever this boss of theirs was, he was going to get a piece of my mind! Swearing franticly behind the thick metal, I eventually ran out of breath and fell on my knees, waiting.

Something told me this was more than just a bad day.


	7. Discussions

How long had it been? Two days? And Lyds was still nowhere to be seen. Sleepily, I opened my eyes and groaned. My back was stiff, and that little coffin bed didn’t really provide the room to be able to pop it as soon as I wake up. Standing up and scratching my lower back, I thrusted forward and waited for the relaxing pops to loosen up my spine. I had stayed up late, verylate, out lookin’ for Lyds. The night was spent flying around and calling for her. I even went by the western parts of the Neitherworld. She wasn’t there, but it was pretty interesting visiting the place anyway. It was falling apart; ‘bout ready to bite the dust. Since both people in that town who had ever had enough leadership to become mayor had been killed, the town was going insane. Everyone else is afraid to run for Mayor, though I don’t really understand why.

Actually, Little Miss Warden had the same problem down in NeitherNeitherLand(Don’t even ask why I checked for Lyds down there). Said she had a bad feeling about the murders that have been committed. As probably the most feared monster in the neitherworld, that’s pretty bad if she has a bad feeling. Hell, I’d agree with her that Poopsie is the best trained dog in the world just to stay out of her way. Anything to avoid becoming cute and cuddly.

Grief took over my thoughts once more. Mostly because if Lyds were here, she would be pulling me through the door and urging me to help her find a way to solve this mystery. Well, her twelve-year-old self would. The only problem I have with solving it is that we’re not the freakin’ Scooby Doo gang. I mean for god’s sake, I don’t even want to help people to begin with. It’s a doggy dog world out there. Every ghost, ghoul, and monster for themselves.

Took me a minute to come back down to earth and examine where I was. My senses told me I was in the kitchen. Good. I was starved. Wait...not good. The cabinets were empty.

Well, this means I gotta go shopping! Without even minding the fact that I was still in my pajamas, I waltzed right out of the roadhouse and somehow managed to get into my striped suit while I was actually walking through the door.

Holy crap I was so tired. The dark circles around my eyes were probably larger than usual. I had lost so much sleep over my best friend. The thought of her missing made me want to start bawling all over again.

Walking here to the Shocking Mall, I sighed. Back then I was happily singing on my way here. Only to find myself flat broke and unable to purchase a damned thing for Lydia. Lately I had been doing nothing other than looking back at the past. At how things used to be. But now things are different. Now Lydia’s gonna grow up and start off on her own. I should just be thankful that she’s letting me visit.

Okay, so now I was at the insects department. There were stink beetles, roaches, and all other sorts of bugs! But today I only had enough money for one jar of the usuals. Plain, normal beetles. As I made my way to the cash register, I passed by a fine looking ghoul and eyed her a minute. Smiling slightly, I was about to tap her shoulder and throw out one of my cheap pickup lines. But I didn’t do anything. I just sat there, and stared. A picture of Lydia popped up in my head. And this ghoul had no resemblance with Lydia to even cheer me up a little, right now.

Purple skin, deep blue eyes, hair as green as the grass in the real world, and a pink minidress to top it off. Her lips were ruby red, and her eyelashes were long. The green hair that grew on her head was waved and curled, as if she were styled to go to a party. And those deep set blue eyes...just weren’t what I was interested in. This chick was all about color. Nothing else. It was obvious on her appearance that she was the happy-go-lucky kind. Her pink high heal sandals to match her dress clicked as she walked her nice little figure down the isle. All I could do was just watch her go, a permanent frown on my face.

What am I doing?! Sucking in air, I took four steps in attempt to follow the nice ghoul, but then failed and just slowed down in my tracks and eventually stopped again. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. There were more important things to worry about and god damnit, I can’t even hit on a decent looking ghoul! What the fuck was wrong with me?!

I’m the ghost with the god damned most! I should be able to hit on ghouls whenever the hell I want to!

But I couldn’t. That was the problem.

Cursing under my breath, I made my way to the cash register and bought what I came here for. I handed the cashier my money and he forked over the jar. All was just dandy. Yet the walk back to the roadhouse seemed longer. The sidewalks were almost empty, not a lot of people were walking.

I stood there at the curb of the sidewalk, about ready to cross the road when some kid passed by, his shoulders hunched forward about knocked me over. 

“Hey! Watch where yer goin’!” I shouted after him. The young boy turned around and hissed, an angry snarl staining his features. His lips pulled back and fangs sneered at me, plack eyes squinting with disturbed fury. If anything, I would’ve guessed he was having a bad day.

When his back arched, he hissed again, taking a step back. Jesus, what was wrong with this kid? He was actin’ like I was gonna kill ‘im! But then the tension of his body lowered, and he straitened up his back a little.

The boy’s eyes widened, as if he were staring at my striped suit, looking it up and down. The last thing I’d feel was self consciousness. No, I felt angry, somewhat offended by this. Baring my teeth back at him, the boy winced slightly and just stood there and stared at me. Something about him seemed familiar. The only thing that trampled the familiarity was the lust for blood that read every bit of his expression.

Scuzzo ripped the tape from my mouth and I hissed in pain. The wicked smile on his face grew to the sound of my discomfort. 

“Beetle-”

“Ah, ah ahhh,” he stopped me and covered my mouth quickly. Fuzzo handed his brother something, a black string? No, a slug?

Fuck.

It was a leach. A Neitherworldian leach. The many eyes on its head squinted behind the rows of sharp teeth almost half the size of it’s tiny body. 

“Attempt to say his name, and this little booger will suck your life out before you can finish,” Scuzzo cackled slightly as he set the leach down on my shoulder. I hated how smart those parasites could be in the Neitherworld.

I didn’t want to die. No, I couldn’t do that to Beetlejuice. 

“Whose behind this?” I asked, glaring as hard as I could. “Don’t strain yourself, you’ll find out soon enough. He wants to talk to you, which is why you’re not in that stupid room with that metal scrap on your mouth.” So badly had I wanted to groan and scream. Strapped to a chair was not how I planned to spend my day, but Fuzzo was too overpowering. As a monster, and a clown, he has dominance over me, not even counting the tricks he had up his sleeves. For one who was quiet, he was also hard to escape. Scuzzo was a little easier. A stomp on the big shoe, and he bounced back yelping.

They hadn’t really fed me much. Only when my stomach growled had they tossed something carelessly into the storage room. Rummaging for canned foods in there was also tiring. And the fact that I couldn’t scream for him when I was left alone was aggravating. Suddenly defeated, I slumped back in the chair and sighed. Beetlejuice...I hope you’re not worrying too much about me right now. But I sure as hell am worried about what they plan to do to you.

The thing that sucks most about waiting for someone to meet you while tied to a chair is when your ass falls asleep. Squirming in my chair, Scuzzo looked at me with one eyebrow arched. 

“What’s your problem?”

“My ass is asleep!” I complained. He chuckled and looked back down at the deck of cards that he was scrambling up out of boredom. Fuzzo was on the other side of the room, being mute as can be. I watched Scuzzo for a minute, but quickly got bored with the card trick. Beetlejuice’s magic tricks are what I found interesting. They were always so funny. Of course, people got hurt in the process but that didn’t really matter if you were laughing along with the man causing everything. Well, I guess I couldn’t really call it magic, then, huh? Pranks would be a better word. Tricks possibly, if they didn’t cause so much grief out of one person in particular. Or a few.

If only we had magic in the real world, where I live. The only magical thing we have is a television set. With the push of a button you can go from a chick flick to a horror movie. Personally, if I weren’t tied to a chair, I’d be looking for the guy who invented the television. The moving pictures. Talking to him in person, or...whatever you call it here in the neitherworld, then I’d be thanking him immensely. Now those who say that television is bad and fries your brain can kiss my ass. Many times when BJ was either busy doing his own thing or supposed to be doing something else for community service, which he is in a lot, television has been my second best friend. Now hey, don’t get me wrong, some of my picks weren’t the greatest idea to pass the time. Like that cowboy horror movie...yeah...not so much. But there were other movies too! Like...Night of The Living Dead! Oh, that use to be one of my favorites!

Getting back to the point I was making to myself to pass the time, I quickly dropped the subject on movies. Back to magic! As I was saying, we don’t have really anything there in the real world. It’s too filled with logic. A supernova started. Several proto-planets were formed in the explosion. Millions of years pass, and bacteria forms on the oneplanet that was, at the time, capable of holding life. Now, somewhere in those years it had to have been done being a protoplanet. And somewhere in there, too, has to be the time where a meteor or whatever hits the Earth and sent a chunk of it into the air and caught in our orbit. Anyone guess what that is? Some might not, but that is the moon. At least, that’s how many believe it to be there, describing how the hell that got where it’s at, and the large hole, we now call, the Pacific Ocean.

The bacteria has life, therefor, survival of the fittest starts! Anyone wanna ring the bell to start the fight? Organisms form, eating bacteria, but it doesn’t stop there. Survival of the fittest was just starting; sadly, it just never ended. In fact, it repeated until several species had been born. AKA, the dinosaurs.

Well, just like everything else in the real world, those eventually died out. Now where they are in this endless paralell universe for the dead, I did not know. So after they were gone, guess who popped up? The mammals. Yay us! Actually this thing kinda repeats. We keep evolving. Everything changes very slowly, and what humans will become next is unknown, if we ever do actually change. I should give credit to the creator of all this. God is one hell of an engineer, if you look at the anatomy of some of the creatures. He gave us all one specific element to live by. Bats use sound, fish breathe water, and most of the things living out of the water breathe air.

Ever known that a hammer head shark is more than just a flat headed fish that gives live birth(God, that must be painful for hammer head mothers)? Something in their heads acts as a radar of some sort. One that picks up electrical currents, too. Therefor, if a fish were hiding well that no one could see it, a hammer head shark would. For the most part, the fish wouldn’t even have to breathe to be spotted. His heart would be beating. The electrical currents from the fish’s brain to the heart or any movement of muscle within it will not pass by the shark. The electrical current detector will pick up anythingwith a small spark. In conclusion, poor Nemo might as well be fried.

And the duck-billed platipuss! Serioulsy, what the hell? To us it could be classified as a freak of nature in some sorts, but to God, it was created for a reason. It’s one of the only mammals that lay eggs.

But as logical as it seems, there has to be some sort of flaw! There’s just too less of anything magic! For god’s sake, anything without logic is considered folklore. I want to believe in magic. I want to know that there’s more than just logic, something more powerful out there! In the real world!

Didn’t come to me at first. But after a minute, I realized there really was something that was beyond logic. For once, something that people can’t just explain through genes. Not precisely magic, but close enough.

Love.

It wasn’t clear at first. The thought was just too clouded. But if you really think about it, love can be more than just lust we get when a couple wants to make things go bump in the night. No, that’s just lust, the instinct of not letting ourselves die out. It can be so much more than that, though! To commit to one person for an eternity. The ability to tolerate so much crap from that one person, and sacrifice a shitload of what you want for that one person. And vise-versa. To want to be with someone for all of time, yet with the tiny sensation you get to just push them away. To like and hate at the same time. To be good yet evil to that one person.

Yet that magic we do have can turn black. Love can be the cause of suicide, loss of will, lack of life in one’s soul. Thou who trusts love to a dangerous extent will fall harder than any tall man. Not always does it turn out this way, though. Only to those who are just flat out unlucky; or it just wasn’t meant to be.

I sighed out loud to myself, shaking my head sadly. All my life I had always wanted to know the true feeling of love. The love that doesn’t backfire on someone. To be in love with someone who was loyal, who had faith in me, who loved me for me. Looking warily to the leach on my shoulder, it had appeared that he was just looking at me. Just watching him made me think even deeper inside my head. Then it hit me.

I did have someone who was loyal. He had faith in me. I don’t know if he loved me, but he’s done so much for me. He’s saved my ass, and more importantly, my life. More than once, even. He has made it clear to me that I am in fact important to him. Vital. Sure, he’s risked our friendship for the ability to pull a single prank on my parents. And then there were times where he ran in circles trying to forget about me. But sure enough, we always pulled through. For six years now, we’ve been the bestest of friends. Just Beetlejuice and I.

And then to think...if I died tonight; if whoever was behind all this wanted to kill me, for some strange reason I wouldn’t mind. To think that if I were killed and had to haunt my house for about two-hundred years or so, without ever seeing my best friend again, I wouldn’t be happy, but I wouldn’t be really upset. Mostly because I have so many happy memories with him, going over them would just about be most of those years. And the fact that neither of us would age, I could wait for him. I really could. Deep down, I think I really did know what it was like to have true love. For a minute, I think I really had it at my fingertips. The connection between us both was strong, the bonding we’ve had over all these years was just too great. To finally find out that the stupid ‘L’ word was all we needed to say to each other was the cure to the gap that had been forming between us lately, I was quite surprised. I never would have guessed it on my own will.

Scuzzo leapt from his seat and whistled for his brother to come join him in the center of the room. He pulled a small black circle from his sleeve and dropped it on the ground, the circle turning into a hole for them to jump through. Jerking forward but then immediately pulled back by the threat of the small leech sitting on my shoulder, I shouted, 

“Hey! Where are you going?!” My heart accelerated with fear and excitement that something interesting was finally happening. “Our friend is here to see you now,” he cackled as he leapt after Fuzzo into the hole. And then I was alone.

Breaths short but incredibly fast, I gulped down the temptation to scream his name one more time. I was alone, and mostly scared. Made me laugh, to think that if I were the twelve-year-old self I once was a long time ago, I’d be yelling and screaming threats into the darkness that he would come save me. That they wouldn’t get away with it. Now, I was no more than just a young wench, scared to death alone in the dark. A shuffling in the darkest corner of the room made my breathing stop. Fear had risen so far up in me that I wanted to scream. I wanted to kick and pull and throw the biggest tantrum I could. Just the threat of the small insect eating it’s way into my throat and torturing me from the inside was what weighed me down.

The shuffling stopped.

Fuck!

Sweat appeared on my forehead, though I couldn’t wipe it away. The presence in the room had this aura, one so fierce that I had forgot to breathe for almost a minute. I was scared. Scared to death. Staring into the darkness of that onecorner, I winced. A tall creature cloaked with the hood hiding above the mouth emerged from the darkness. The cloak was black as the darkness he came from. Eyes weren’t visible, but I had a feeling that they were a bright color; red or yellow, one of the two. The bottom half of the face that was just barely visible in the darkness of the dimly lit room wasn’t like anything I had seen in the Neitherworld before. The face was narrow, and the chin pointed. It almost looked like a mask, but I wasn’t sure what the hell this guy was exactly. His skin looked rough, almost like black armor, and a large permanent smile was spread across his face. The smile revealed a thick row of needles of teeth, just one big row. No bottom or top, as if made as a mask. That’s what I thought it was.

“Hello, famous Lydia Deetz,” the voice was low, no age limit that was really detectable using human ears. The mouth of the mask didn’t move when he spoke. Or was that really a mask? I didn’t reply. My breathing and heart rate were so unspeakably fast that it made him chuckle under the dark mask that I figured was the face under the hood. The creature was tall, possibly a foot taller than Beetlejuice. 

“I’d like to have a nice conversation. Get to know you,” he said as he strided across the room and now stood just inches away from me. The leech on my shoulder hissed at him menacingly as he continued, 

“And to do so, I plan to have it just between me and you.” The man picked up the leach and squeezed the hand he held it in into a fist. The guts of the small creature leaked from his palms and he let go, a ring of the sharp teeth dropped to the floor. I stared at it whimpering slightly, feeling sorry for the little thing. 

“Now that’s out of the way, I need you to promise me,” he continued, bringing his attention from the now double dead leech to me. 

“Promise me that you would at least speak with me before calling for your...friend.”

My heart told me to start screaming, but curiosity beat it to a pulp. I wanted to know what this man was up to. I wanted to know everything I can get from him. I nodded to the promise obediently, mentally crossing my fingers since I couldn’t really feel them at the moment. 

“Good,” he mused. 

“So tell me, Lydia, do you know why you’re here?”

I shook my head.

“Come on, darling, use words. Not action. Lets be civil.”

I struggled to find words to say to him, feeling as if I had to do what he said. 

“N-no. I don’t know. Why am I here? What is it that you’re up to?!”

“Ah, there we go. The sound of your voice. So lovely,” he sighed. What the fuck was wrong with this guy? 

“You’re here because you’re in my way,” he was suddenly harsh. 

“Go on?”

“Lydia Deetz, thou so popular to the public of the Neitherworld. You’re the only one whose able to keep Beetlejuice on a rope, correct? He only obeys what you tell him, right? Right. Well, I figured that his guard wouldn’t be so tight with you out of the picture.”

“What do you plan to do to him?!” I demanded, my voice raising to a hoarse level. 

“Calm down now. I only wish to...chat with the idiot.”

“Don’t you dare touch him!” I screamed, jerking forward in the chair. 

“Now, missy, don’t start to get attitude with me,” he laughed, 

“Sadly that’s a promise I can’t keep.”

“So what do you want with me then?”

“I want you to tell me why your here in the Neitherworld, no human should see that there’s life after death.”

“I’m best friends with the Ghost with the Most, I have every god damned right to be here,” I spat. 

“That’s none of your business anyway.”

He sighed morosely to himself, the mood he was in had changed so suddenly I was unaware. 

“It kills me slightly to see someone risk so much like this,” he shook his head. 

“No matter, I plan to merely make this world what it should have been in the first place. Hell.” 

Suddenly, I was more confused than scared and angry. 

“Come again?”

“You heard me. I’m merely improving.” He growled under his breath and started ranting. 

“I use to be the most feared monster in all of the Neitherworld. I was one of the most chilling stories anyone had ever heard. The worldfeared me! And every pathetic being in it.” 

My mind began to rant at the same time he did. What story? Any stories I knew? I began to flip through my head. 

“Everyone would check their closet and under their beds for me. And for a long time I was able to drag them down with me, to prove that I can be real. But after a while, the Neitherworld guardians caught up with my doings, and somehow drained my powers. Locked away for thousands of years, sent to the lost souls room for the rest of eternity, it all wasn’t fair!

“And then I realized. I wasn’t completely drained. How much chaos could I cause? All I needed was to wait. To wait for my powers to slowly return to me. And how I had to do that was only to scare and kill. That was all my tale was ever told to do. Scare. But the tale stretched, and my being became actual matter, and then it came to kill. As long as I scared, as long as I killed, my powers would increase greatly. How they caught up to me would always be a question in my mind.”

Slumped in the chair, my body tensed. What was he going to do? 

“Why do you want me here? What’s the real reason I’m strapped to a chair, and not allowed to leave?” I demanded. He turned to me, his voice wary with regret that he had just revealed to me what he might be plotting. 

“The real reason? Because, my dear,” he took two long strides over to me in the chair, and reached out a hand that lightly under my chin, pulling my face up to look him in the eye. A scowl twisted my face as he did so. 

“Without you here with me I have no ability to take down every bit of leadership left in this rundown town.”

“Why is that?”

“Your soul, darling. It’s incredibly large, too large to be possible, really.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because you’re the only kind heart that has ever been able to make Beetlejuice do something as jurastic as bathe. It’s kindness that defeats him, cruelty that fuels him. The kindness that is merely what builds your soul, along with bliss, is what tramples him. Tell me, have you ever gotten back at someone in a violent way? Or passed up the chance to?”

Now that I think about it, I kinda did pass up chances to act violently to something. I mean, sure, some of my revenges were absolutely brilliant but they weren’t violent. It was Beetlejuice that made them so. But kindness and pure bliss? Hell, I haven’t slept for days, the last thing that would be in my soul is bliss. After a moment of deciding my answer, I shook my head. He smiled, though the bliss part was probably off in my point of view, he surely felt he had made a point. 

“Okay, so I know why you need me...but what for?” I tried to get as much as I could...don’t know why it interested me this way, though.

“Like I said, dear, your soul is large. The only kind of soul that would ever feed me and restore my abilities to perfect condition. I don’t necessarily needto murder to get my strength back. But if I were to be at the top of my game, then the place would fall, just like I plan. The Neitherworld would be on it’s back, beaten into submission. When that happens I will restart the whole afterlife universe, molding it into the hell that should have existed. I will be the ruler, the starter, I will be god in the eyes of everyone who has died. Just as much as god, I will also be known as the devil.” His breathing was deep with excitement at the thought. So he needed to eat my soul? His sides heaved as he spoke, somewhere in that rant he had turned his back to me and cackled.

Turning back around to face me, he chuckled menacingly, though I could not see it, and traced my cheekbone with one of his fingers. 

“But before I can even start with that, I need to beat around the bush a bit. Work on the areas around the capital before I strike.”

I pulled my face away from his finger, my scowl twisting to a snarl as I growled when I spoke. 

“You’re not taking my soul,” I hissed. Slightly surprised at myself, I winced at what he would retort. But he didn’t. He just stood there, frozen like a statue. 

“Why, there’s nothing you can do about it,” he laughed. His head jerked to the side to look away from me and yelled into the darkness. 

“Scuzzo! Fuzzo! Keep her locked in that storage room a little while longer. Make sure she stays alive,” he ordered. Scuzzo and Fuzzo appeared from the darkness this time. When the hell did they get here? As long as they were pleased with the fact that Beetlejuice would be out of the picture, they’d do anything he wanted. 

“Wait! Just one more question!” I begged. 

His masked face looked down at me, I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or smiling. 

“Yes?”

“Who are you?”

He cackled slightly. Suddenly there was a pain in my jaws. And then a greater, ear piercing scream itching up in my throat. My head drew back to release it, the high pitch tone of my voice fading as the burning pain in my gums tightened. I tasted blood. A lot of it, pouring from in between my jaws. My tongue flailed around my mouth as if it were trying to escape before my teeth were forced to grit shut, and I could no longer scream. Worse than the metal plate on the mouth gag, wires had pierced through my gums and lapped my jaws several times, sealing them shut. The blood that was stuck in the back of my throat seemed to keep me from breathing, slightly. Taking in a deep breath, I swallowed it all back down and heaved in air through my flaring nostrils, looking at him with pure fear. I hadn’t felt fear like this in a long time. Something here was truely wrong.

“Dear Lydia, there’s no need to scream,” he chuckled and inhailed deeply to answer my question.

“I guess you can refer to me as...the Boogieman.”


	8. Call For Help!

The stripes. The illusion of black and white stained my memories from hiding under Lydia’s bed as a middle aged cat. Despite how rude to me he was and careless about me at the times, I needed his help. Well damn.

He bared his teeth back at me and I flinched, in attempt to make it look like I meant no harm...personally. Those green eyes glared strait through me, his ragged blonde hair probably the messiest I’ve ever seen in my life. I had not yet attempted to talk, but as if on instinct I opened my mouth and groaned, 

“Do you ever brush your hair? Or even your teeth?” I was surprised. That was the first time I had ever spoke, and I guess since I’ve lived around a lot of humans during my life it was a lot easier for me to adapt to than possibly other cats who have had to put up with something as similar to speaking English. 

“Do I know ya?” Beetlejuice grunted the question at me, ready to leap at me as if I were his prey. My hands balled into fists at the threat in his actions, but I managed to control myself.

“Yeah...you do, unfortunately. Look, I don’t have time to get into any trouble with you right now. Lydia is in trouble!”

At the sound of her name he seemed to halt and take a step back, then leaned forward as a low growl rumbled in his chest. My lip slightly curled up to reveal a few of my teeth as I leaned forward as well. Growling back at him, I exhaled a slight hiss and cocked my head, waiting for him to at least offerhelp. As much as anyone would doubt that he would, he seemed concerned about her enough. 

“How do you know Lyds,” he replied with a question of his own. 

“What is this, twenty questions? I’m her cat, for Christ’s sake! She dragged me in here on accident when she went lookin’ for you! Then this happened to me and I don’t even know where the hell I’m going!” My chest heaved as I had said all that without space for a single breath. The ghost pulled back from my yelling and then eyed me.

“Percy? There’s no fucking way you’re Percy.”

“Wanna bet?” I asked and quickly shifted to my normal size as a cat. My jaw opened and I let out a long meow as if it say, “Told you fucking so, jackass.”

“Percy was old, he couldn’t have gotten younger.”

I shifted back to Ryan’s shape and hissed through my teeth, 

“I know that I was old, shit head! How can I shove it through your thick skull that you’re standing in front of possibly the only trace of Lydia left in this hell?!” 

Beetlejuice seemed taken back by this, but quickly giving up the idea of retorting something, he sighed. If I knew any better, he was considering my point that I had obviously still had not completely made, and didn’t know what else to do. I could see it, that he was desperate to find her. Hell, so was I! 

“Look,” I said, calming down and ignoring the stares of people from cars going by. 

“The last time I saw her was in an alley, while I was still an old fart. Something grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the black. After I changed I could pick up scents a lot better than I had before, but at the end of the alley both traces of Lydia and whoever the hell took her were gone. They had to be teleported or something.”

Long, dreadful awkward silence.

He looked up at me, those green eyes no longer filled with hate. They were filled with fear. That I thought I’d never see. Was he thatscared of losing Lydia? 

“All right, pop quiz, to prove that you’re really Percy,” he said finally. 

“When was the first time you visited the Nietherworld, and what all happened?”

Was he serious? I look at the back of my hand and answered, 

“First time I visited the Neitherworld was on Halloween when Lydia was around 12 or 13, memory is a bit blurred, but I was kidnapped by a witch and taken to the Witch’s Ball.” I said as if I had explained it a million times. I looked up at him and continued with a short detail, 

“You and Lydia had to dress up as witches in order to enter the party and save me. I was too scared of one of the larger cats to really do anything but try to run.

” His mouth dropped in disbelief. But slowly it closed, and his weight tackled me to the ground in a desperate hug. 

“Oh man, Percy, am I glad to see you! I was starting to think that Lydia was leaving me for good but now that I know you’re here she’s got a good reason for disappearing’,” he cheered and squeezed me. Oh, the wretched smell.

In order to save my senses I pushed him off and took a deep breath of the fresher air away from him. 

“I was supposed to die but instead I turned into a big thingie that eats people!” I whined and flailed my arms. Well, might as well tell him whyI’m here. A bypasser looked at us strangely and quickened his pace. Probably the only other monster actually walking on the sidewalk today. 

“So, Beetle-”

“Nobody says the B words!”

“Sorry, Beej,” I referred to him with one of Lydia’s many nicknames for him. 

“Anyway, we gotta find her fast. I don’t like the smell of whoever it was that took her.”

“Well, what did he smell like?”

“Rubber, powder makeup, and not as foul as you, but still dead.”

“Don’t try to cheer me up,” he muttered at the foul stench portion. Looking down to the ground, I could tell he was going over the list once more in his head. Realization took form as an expression on his face as he looked up at me. A low growl arose from his chest, somewhat shaking the earth. 

“Clown, no doubt, right?” he asked. 

“What the fuck is a clown?” Okay, yes, I can speak human now, didn’t mean I knew what everything was. Lydia only talked to me about her problems when no one else was there for her. I only knew enough to get by. Talking to your cats help, folks. Makes us feel more loved.

“You...don’t know what a clown is.” It was more of a statement. Well, that’s what it sounded like. I rolled my eyes and he grunted. 

“Okay, skip lessons for today. It has to be a clown. And there’s only one clown that I can think of that hates us enough to kidnap Lyds.”

Before I could open my mouth to ask what he was talking about, both of us poofed off the sidewalk.

It hurt to talk. It hurt to try to talk. Tears of pain streamed down my cheeks as I pressed my hands tightly over my mouth and jaws, but that only made it hurt worse. It was useless. I was in pain. Lots of it. Nothing helped. On my knees again in the middle of that dark room, I sat in the small pool of light escaping into the room through a crack in the boarded window. My breathing was small, and not very even. One way to make it hurt less was to breathe less. It would limit the amount of blood flow. Keeping my breaths limited, I let myself drench in the warmness of the only light in the dark room. The rest was just black outlines and faint shadows. Nothing more. That was decided. I was going to die.

That guy wasn’t going to need me til’ probably a little while longer. He was going to venture just around the Neitherworld and get most of the town’s leaders, Mayors, Kings, Queens, anyone with lawful rights to take Mayor Mayknot’s place. After that, it was war. I was smart, I could figure it out. The empires and cities around the capital will fall completely, and with not much back up, we will fall just as easily. But how was he planning on getting rid of Beetlejuice? That I didn’t understand...ghosts and monsters can’t exorcise each other! So what was he going to do to get close to exorcising him? I just didn’t understand.

But still, he was going to call for me. And Scuzzo and Fuzzo were going to open those doors to retrieve me. I was in a freakin’ storage room! Who knows what was in all these boxes! Taking a deep breath to feed more blood cells, I took my breaths to their normal level once more and waited about a minute, then got to my feet. I staggered over to the window and did my best to rip the boards from the window, letting the rest of the light pour into the room. Finally drenched in the light of the Neitherworld’s sun, I looked around. Not as dark as it use to be, but still pretty dim. Oh well, didn’t matter. I dug around randomly in boxes until’ my hands came across something. What was it...a pipe? Very large, metallic, copper? No, iron. Heavy too. Pulling with all my strength, I wedged it out of the box and managed myself ready for position. As soon as those doors open, them clowns are gonna see nothin’ but stars!

So I waited...

...and waited...

...and waited.

A sound of clicking forced my eyes open. Had I fallen asleep? Leaning my back off the wall and attempting to pop it, I looked around. The light was now dimmer than it was earlier. It’s probably about noon by now. I had fallen asleep in a sitting position against the wall, the pipe at my side. My eyes again snapped open. The clicking sound! Someone was opening the door! The pipe! I needed the pipe! My hand flew to my side and gripped it, my body flying up into the air and into a balanced position. I looked like I was getting ready to bat at a baseball game. Again, the clicking sound. This time a little more forceful, and then it finally pulled open. Scuzzo’s shadow broke in through the doorway, and I swung around into site beside it. The pipe jerked in my hands. I hit something! Scuzzo! He flailed back, and lost consciousness. That went a little better than I expected. But not for long. Fuzzo rushed to his aid, and I pulled my arms up to swing again. This time, he caught the pipe. Damnit! Fuzzo took the pipe and ripped it from my hands. I turned my side to him to flinch, and to avenge his brother’s pain, Fuzzo pulled his arms back and brought them around, hitting my spine and sending me flying back just like I did to his brother. Though, I didn’t land on my back. I landed on my stomach, my arms pulling to my sides in attempt to lift me off the floor weakly.

His shadow casted over me, the pipe raised above his head, ready to hit me again, but this time, he was knocked out of the way. By a source of power. It looked familiar. I wanted to lift my head and scream with delight if I could at all, but my jaws were still wired shut. The happiness died anyway, though, because it wasn’t Beetlejuice whom I thought had saved me. It was him. The Boogieman stood in the dark corner of the room, the hood still hiding anything above the mouth of that damn mask. 

“You can do whatever you wish to her body once I’m through with her,” he hissed at Fuzzo and yanked me off the ground the minute he seemed to stride across the room to my aid. Fuzzo stayed back, and Scuzzo lifted himself off the ground, finally regaining consciousness. 

“I can’t get any farther with the job until’ Beetlejuice is cut out of the picture. Lydia, I need you for this part.”

WHAT?!

I wanted to scream. My voice frantically fought it’s way through my forced teeth and I couldn’t help but make noises from my throat. I’m not doing a damn thing for him! Not a damn thing! But I had no choice. He gripped my arm and yanked me through a different door, this time to what must have been a living-dead room at some point. But now it was just an empty room with a table in the center. The table had a chair at it, and a small candle, one similar to the candle I have at home, sat in the center. Along the walls, which were shades of dark blue and purple, were cluttered boxes and old furniture covered in dust blankets. My attention was brought back to the small table once more, to what really frightened me. The book sitting in front of the chair on the table. The Hand Book For the Recently Deceased.

The pain in my jaws grew, only enough for me to realize that the wires in my jaws were retreating. I could open my mouth again! I could call for him! I could scream his name yet the pain was too great to allow me to. Then it was gone. Relief rushed through my veins and I exhaled through my mouth, then gasped, spitting out and sputtering all of the blood that I have been forced to swallow since the moment I was forced to keep quiet like that. 

“You won’t make me do this!” I coughed and wiped the blood away with the sleeve on my arm, my tattered poncho matching the red liquid exactly. 

“You’re pretty smart to figure out what I have planned for you when I didn’t even get to the part yet,” his voice had a laugh to it. It was always so damn calm! 

“You’re exorcising the ghost. The only way you can get out of this situation is by killing yourself,” he spat and tossed something onto the table. It was a pocket knife. 

“But if you do that then you’ll be spending the rest of eternity working in offices, never time to visit or go home for vacations. And then you wouldn’t be able to see Beetlejuice at all.”

“You bastard.”

“And if you refuse to do either, I’ll do the same little wire trick, only throughout you’re whole entire body. Now do it!”

I yelped. That fucking hurts. I had no choice. Disappointed in myself, I sobbed a little. If I were twelve-years-old again, I would take all that pain. But I can’t now. I’ve grown soft. I’ve been broken. With these past few days, none of this can compare to losing my best friend, and I’d be doing it all over again, one last time. Why was I doing this? How had I just given up so easily?!

Taking my time slowly, I timidly approached the table. A slight wind blew, opening the book and flipping pages, then stopped and let the book rest at chapter ten; Exorcism. The distance between me and that dreaded table was finally closed, and along with that, my eyes closed too. Inhaling a deep breath, I smiled, not bothering to look down at the book.

I had to move fast. My hands balled into fists and raised up in the air. Stretching out slowly, until’ I sensed the heat from the suddenly lit candle touch my knuckles, the fists stretched into tense hands, as my eyes snapped open and I moved as fast, yet as gracefully as I could with this. 

“Though I know I should be weary.” 

The tensed hands stretched over the candle, capturing the light and then gracefully moving my body along the border of the table, 

“Still I summonsomething scary.” 

The hands capturing the heat and flowing to my sides, my elbows bending and stretching as I tried to make this look as much like exorcism as I could. 

“Ghostly huantings I turn loose!” 

The hands pulled back and balled up again as I forced and jerked them into the air above me, as if releasing every ounce of power my body held in its core. 

“Beetlejuice,” I murmured, suddenly slow and calm, then trying to keep up with the slightly faster version I was using. Before continuing, I turned to look at him in the back of the room through the corner of my eye. He was frozen, trying to recall if that was exorcism or not. 

“Beetlejuice!” My body couldn’t control itself any longer. My body flailed back at the table with excitement, my hands flying into the air again as I said it that third and final time.

“BEETLEJUICE!!”

My voice seemed to echo in the unforgiving darkness behind me. The name forcing out of my mouth with excitement as I said it with a forceful amount of venom on the tip of my tongue. I couldn’t help but laugh, the cackle I had always wanted to try out for myself slipped my throat. I cackled just like he did, enjoying every bit. Thunder rolled and intruded the air within the small dark room. My cackling stopped, and I was suddenly quiet again as the candle’s light grew brighter. Eventually, it blew out, and shots of electricity emerged from the core within the glass. Then it shattered, into so many pieces, right before my eyes. The shards rippled against my skin, though I didn’t flinch, as fear took over me again. That was new? It was dark again. The room barely lit.

“You little bitch!” the Boogieman was suddenly behind me. I whirled around in just enough time for him to grab my throat and pin me up against the wall. 

“Look what you’ve done! You’ve summoned him!” I couldn’t reply. The room was silent, I couldn’t even breathe under his grip. Attempting to make any noise at all, I failed.

“Attention K-mart shoppers,” a gruff, yet cheerful voice announced. 

The Boogieman’s grip on my neck loosened, and he became distracted from my presence just enough for me to pull away and run into an empty shadow. All darkness in the room was terminated, now that a light had suddenly filled the room and vanquished most of the shadows. Boogie growled and grabbed the tail of my poncho, pulling me closer to him. I let out a scream for help.

“Hey Chuck, pick on someone your size!”

My head turned and I leapt in the exact opposite direction I was headed as I attempted to meet up with the Ghost with the Most. 

“Beetlejuice!!” I cried, but was pulled back by the Boogieman once again. 

“Help!!”

“Don’t worry, Lyds!” Beetlejuice raised himself into mid air, 

“I’ll knock ‘im windin’!” He laughed and inflated his fist, punching the Boogieman into a spin that twirled him hard into a wall. I was tempted to laugh, but restrained myself and ran across the room to find a way to help him. 

“Beetlejuice, look out! He can move through shadows!” I warned. That might just work for now. 

“Darling, you know me too well,” the soothing voice laughed as a hand placed on my shoulder. Damn, didn’t know he can escape Beetlejuice’s juicing. I tried to scream but could only ‘eep’ and then was pulled back into darkness. How many times had that happened so far today?

Damn! Where’d he go? “Lyds? Babes, where’d you run off to!” I ran to the bit of shadow in the room that she was at last. I felt something that’s for sure. Pulling it into the light, I cursed. 

“Scape goats. You know I hate ‘em.” I muttered as I tossed the old goat standing in Lydia’s place back into its corner and began to throw a tantrum. 

“Must you make so much noise,” a low hiss came from behind me. 

“Them idiots are going to hear us in the room next door. Lydia and that dark creature, whatever he is, disappeared elsewhere, for now.”

“Percy, I hope you do know that the only thing keeping me from juicing you right now is the thought of how pissed off Lydia will get if I touch a hair on your head.”

“Which is why I intend on enjoying this while I can,” the voice chuckled. I spun around and rolled my eyes. 

“I didn’t use to hate cats until’ now. Soon I hope it starts to rain just dogs and I forget an umbrella.” I lifted an umbrella over my head and a few dogs fell from lord knows where above me and through the fabric of my rain protection, knocking me to the ground. 

“We don’t have time for this,” Percy hissed and pulled me to my feet. The claws of his new body were ice cold, not the enjoyable cold either. 

“Right, well, what’s your plan, then?”

“You’re not going to like it, but listen up anyway.”

“Oh boy.”

“That thing took Lydia into the storage room, I can smell their presence somewhere in this building. And one of the weirdoes next door is the one who kidnapped her. That much I know. Lydia’s not leaving this old place any time soon, so the best time for my turn to strike will be later tonight.”

“No! We’re getting her back now! And we’re kicking some ass!” I protested. 

“If you don’t hear my plan first, you’re not going to kick any ass at all! Now zip it!” Damn the literal puns part of my juicing. My lips zipped shut and I unzipped them, narrowing my eyes at him. 

“Fine,” I spat, crossing my arms. 

“So are you going to listen, or what?”

“Go ahead,” I snorted as my hands, feet, and head turned into large ears as smaller ears dotted randomly about my body, 

“I’m all ears!”


	9. Reunited

“And stay there!!” Scuzzo yelled as Fuzzo discarded my beaten body into the same room again. As my spine hit the ground before the rest of my body, I felt it crack somewhat and hissed violently at the pain. The door shut and I was alone again. They didn’t strap me to a chair, and they didn’t tie my mouth shut.

Boogie apparently believed that any more pain would make me pass out cold and I’d eventually die here. Like hell I was gonna live. Coughing and sputtering on the spit in the back of my throat, I rolled to my side groaning. It offically killed me to move. I’d rather be sitting in class by Claire Brewster than to go through this hell.

Well...maybe not, but at least that would be painless.

Finally. Success. I was now laying on my side. Now for the harder challenge; to get up on two feet. Oh joy.

My head fell to the ground with lack of energy, and I closed my eyes. It was nothing but dim red light that entered through the window. The sun was setting. Damnit.

If only someone would send me a knight in shining armor. I mean, Beej was summoned here, but he didn’t know where the hell here was. Not to mention that I was being held captive two doors down. I’d be pretty shocked if he knew that I was a few rooms over.

But he’s probably expecting more than that, as he usually does. He prabably thinks that they took me to an evil lair of some kind, and that he’d have to dress up as Grimdiana Bones to save my ass.

My breath grew steady, and I sighed heavily as my senses felt the darkness closing in and the sun breathing it’s last few rays to this half of the Neitherworld.

Sleep, yes, I needed sleep. That might help me think clearer about things. But I can’t sleep. That’s the problem. Not because I was worried, but because something prickly was rubbing against my cheek. I felt like I was nuzzling a tree trunk, for god’s sake. What the fuck?

My eyes fluttered open and I realized it was just a cat. They closed again with a sigh of relief. Nothing more than just a silly...black cat with those yellow eyes that I love so dearly and...wait a minute.

With a sudden burst of energy I shot off the ground and sat up on the floor, taking the cat in both hands and lifting him into the darkness above me. Kinda like the scene where Simba is introduced to the whole kingdom, except, he’s facing me. Not a crowd of animals in the jungle.

“Percy?!” I cried in a harsh whisper so they wouldn’t here me out of the room. 

The cat let out a low meow, his eyes gleaming brilliantly in the dimness of the room.

“Oh, Percy!” I cried, tears streaming down my face as I held the cat close to my chest and hugged him dearly. 

“I’m never letting go. I’m sorry I got you into this mess, Percy, really I’m truly sorry!”

“Don’t be,” said a soft voice. I stopped. 

“Percy did you... did you just say something?”

“Long story, Lydia,” the voice cooed comfortingly as arms wrapped around me in return. Emberrased fear stunned through me and I pulled back to see a bronzed haird boy that looked around my age. His eyes were no longer yellow, but pure black. 

“You...you’re not Percy,” I murmured, pulling away. His arms fell limply to his sides as he sat on his knees in front of me. 

“I would drag BJ in here with me to help me prove it, but he’ll throw a tantrum and blow my cover. I don’t want that to happen yet,” he snickered.

My jaw dropped. But then...how...what? 

“If you’re Percy then...how...how are you...a...person? And you can...talk?!”

“I don’t know, after you were taken in the alley I was turned into this one monster thing. I can turn into anyone whos’ flesh I eat. I won’t go into detail with that but a dog catcher called me some kind of Bakeneko thing. What is that?”

Bakeneko. Now I remember something like that from History class. 

“I think those are old legends from Japan. Based on cats, so that’ll explain why you’re one. I’ll have to look it up...if we get out of here...”

“We will,” he promised. “And right now, I’d love to be able to hold my own conversation with you, but I need to get on with that ‘getting out of here’ plan, first. To do that, I’ll need to eat a bit of you,” He winced when saying this.

“Hm?”

“I’ll need to take your shape, Lydia, and walk out there like you live there. For this to work, I need to eat a bit of your flesh,” 

I gulped. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll eat it from a smaller form, that way it won’t hurt or look as bad,” he said in a comforting tone. I had so much to ask him. So much I wanted to talk about.

He could bust me out of here, but I’m guessing Percy had the mind to teach these guys a lesson before going anywher near home for a while.

Obediantly, as if I were this cat’s dog, I sacrificed my fore arm. Percy formed into his small self, into an even smaller size, like the size of a mouse, before my eyes and nibbled into the muscle I held out for him. I winced. It did hurt, but not as bad as it probably would have in his biggest form.

My face didn’t necessarily contort with pain, but it forced a twitch on my lips. I was letting him do this, mostly to watch him kick Scuzzo’s ass in the shape of my body. I wonder what it would be like if he even did more, and used my shape throughout the whole process...probably wicked cool!

It didn’t take long. Not even ten seconds passed when the small mouse-sized cat retreated off my arm and then began to shift.

His shape grew larger, and he rose on two legs, his form becoming more human. More petite. I staggard to my feet and stood before a perfect reflection. The only difference was the small bite in my arm and the ragged hair and bruises I had. Percy’s version was perfect, flawless, and I’d never though I’d see the day but...I looked beautiful. I wanted to reach out and touch the skin on my stolen face I allowed him to borrow, to see if it was as real to the touch as it was to the eye. 

“Deadly vu...” I sighed. I hadn’t used that word in so long, but this was just the perfect time for me to say it.

“You have no idea how hard it was to keep from eating the rest of you, Lydia. If I were you I’d keep your distance from me for a little bit, so I can get use to the bloodlust,” my voice sighed at me. Had I looked and sounded so beautiful all along, or was it just a trick the Bakeneko had? 

“But you are me,” I finally said, snickering.

“Well...right now I am.” I laughed and shook my head. 

“Go get ‘em, Percy,” I smiled weakly and followed him to the door, but didn’t move much near the entrence. 

“Make ‘em bleed.”

The feeling of the cold metal of the push handle with human hands, her hands made me shudder. I looked back at her, how fragile, yet broken she looked. She was held captive, probably with little to eat. As sweet as her blood, her very being tasted, you could tell there was a lack of nutrition. She didn’t have to ask me to make them regret ever looking in her direction, because I was going to do that anyway. Beetlejuice and I both would. But Beej can’t come to Lydia yet. It would pain him to see her like this. He would blow the very plan we made together into so many tiny pieces and we can’t travel through time. It’s either now, or never, or mess up and fail. So in order to do things right, Beetlejuice had to wait.

Damn. The door was locked. Didn’t stop me though. With a hard enough shove, I broke the lock and swung the door open. The womanly body I stood in, walked into the room beyond the broken door like I owned it. Hips swaying and all. Even if the red poncho hid a bit of the shaped features, anyone would be able to tell that grace was in this woman’s side. What they didn’t know, was that this woman was actually a man...that was actually a cat. Lets just say it’s better off that they didn’t kow all that, or else it would be anything but convincing stares that I’d be getting.

The sound of the door slamming open startled the shorter clown with the black face, causing him to awake from his nap and fall off the couch. The larger, more muscular clown, leaned off the wall, awaken as well, but not as startled as his smaller brother. Lydia Deetz strolled across the room, long hair, with half of it up in that beehive style, and all, casually took a spot on the couch that the first clown had just fallen off of. 

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” The smaller clown demanded, standing up and fuming at the fact that he was kicked off the couch by a girl. This one must’ve been Scuzzo, since he was the one talking.

“Relaxing,” came the soft voice of not my own, yet under my control as I evened it out with nothing but annoyed edge, as if Scuzzo were bothering me in a little brother kind of way. 

“Get back in that room!”

“What makes you think I’ll listen? You bad guys confuse me. You demand me to do something under your command but you don’t realize that I’m not your butler, and won’t do it without force,” I yawned and stretched on the couch. Using my old cat-like behaviors with a human body was fun. I really did enjoy pissing this guy off. 

“You little brat!” he yelled. 

His larger brother, Fuzzo I presume, obediently, and calmly, strided across the room and reached out as if to grab me by the neck. 

“Throw her back into the room,” Scuzzo growled, looking at me with piercing eyes, 

“Then block the door off with every bit of furniture in the room. The lock is probably smashed, how’d you do that anyway?”

“Touch me,” I said warningly, and looked between the two with a smug look, “and you’ll find out.”

I could see Fuzzo hasitating, as I shot him a glare. The best one I could manage with Lydia’s face. He started to pull back. 

“What are you doing?! She’s a human! She can’t do anything!”

“Guess again!” I laughed as my voice screeched from something like Lydia’s to that of a cat’s yowling. 

I brought my knees up and put my feet on the cushions of the couch, then leapt forward and tackled Scuzzo head on, turning into a large black mass of fur right on impact from the hands down to my tail. My teeth ripped into his neck. Fuzzo grabbed the skin on my back and dragged me off of his slightly mawled brother. I yowled and striked as fast as a vipor, turning my body in the same pattern I would have when falling to land on my feet, and tackled him next. He was strong. Fists and feet have slightly more of an advantage than just teeth and claws. Reason why is because if he kicks me, he can just kick again. Claws are slightly different. When you swipe, you don’t automatically have just the amount of energy to keep swiping. It’s got too much movement. Same goes for punching, both powerful if claws are equiled up to muscle.

When Fuzzo’s back hit the ground, I struggled to find his neck with my teeth, but kept getting his shoulder and upper arms. Gah! I can’t reach him!

Growling furiously at the fact that I was still struggling with him, I pushed with all my strength and pinned his arms to the ground, using my claws to penitrate them. My teeth bared in his face, and I yowled slowly, as if telling him he was about to die again.

“You’ve been a bad Kitty!” Scuzzo yelled and I looked up briefly to see him. Scuzzo lit a cannon and took a step away from it, aiming it at me. He cackled, holding his ears and waiting for the explosion to signify that I was hit with the contents of the cannon’s amo.

“Scuzzo, you’ve always been a step ahead of Beej and I,” came a soft voice. No longer did it belong to me though. I was still a large cat. Scuzzo, Fuzzo, and I all looked to the other side of the cannon to see Lydia, barely standing and smiling to herself with a flash that looked as if it belonged to a really old camera. 

“But this time I think you’re starting to fall behind,” she giggled like a child and flashed the light with the press of a button, like she was taking a picture. The light was unbelievably bright, and Scuzzo was momentarily blinded, staggaring back and tripping over his own feet. Lydia laughed a little louder and pushed the nose of the cannon, so that it was facing him.

“Wait!” Scuzzo cried, but it was too late. The cannon exploaded, and almost just as fast as the explosion went off, blood and whipped cream scattered and took up most of the wall Scuzzo’s back was facing. All of it dripping down so slowly, and bits of the crust on the pie made it a little more tempting to go taste. Especially the cherry stuck in a heap of blood against Scuzzo’s forehead. Lydia stood standing before his body, her arms trembling furiously. It took a minute for her to sink in what she had just done. The tray of the pie stuck out at least a foot away from his chest, revealing that the cream pie that he tried to shoot at me had a large sharp knife sticking from the center. Now he was pinned to the wall, his feet dangling just barely over floor.

The moment of silence passed wasn’t long. Fuzzo soon came to from watching his brother’s death and threw me off of him, heading strait for Lydia. Each time he stepped a large honk came from his shoes, and he looked so pissed. But I wasn’t just going to sit here and watch him in awe. I knew what he was going to do next. He was going to try to break Lydia’s neck with his bare hands, and he could easily do that. Growling and yelling out in a low whine, I screached for a slight second and leapt between the two, my claws and fangs pointed menacingly towards the clown who meant harm to my Lydia. My mistress. My caretaker. The only parent figure I’d ever have in my life as a cat, and for the rest of my eternity as a bakeneko.

Fuzzo knew this was a threat, a threat to stay away from her. Yet he kept pressing forward. As a result to his unstopable lust for revenge, I tackled him head on, this time actually getting a grip on his neck and held it. As I did so, my back claws extended and kicked at his body, shredding his stomach. My tail curled and my front claws held him close to me as I kept shredding at him with my hind legs, and my teeth tearing up his throat. Eventually, the attempt to struggle under my grasp died, and his limbs went limp to the ground from kicking and trying to push me off. I smiled, knowing that I had snapped his neck under the pressure of my jaws.

Lifting off of his large body and leaving him to die, I prowled over to Lydia, and rubbed my back against her waist. Shocked, yet slightly relieved, she scratched behind my ears. I was thinking that now would have been a good time to let Beetlejuice finally arrive.

“Should I call for him then?” Lydia asked.

Huh?

“Percy, weren’t you talking to me just a second ago?”

Um...no? I was in a cat form, there was no way I could talk.

“I’m hearing your voice, even if it doesn’t look like you’re talking.”

I grunted and sniffed her wound. Must be because I bit you. Now we’re connected by mind, so you can hear my thoughts as long as I’m not in human form. I don’t know, it was my random guess.

“Probably. So, should I call for him?”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” a smooth voice laughed from the entrence to the room. That was definately not Beetlejuice’s voice.

Oh. Shit.

Into the room stepped a dark cloaked man, though I couldn’t see his face clearly under the hood, his arms and sleeves blended in wel with the body of the black thing. My back arched and I hissed menacingly, stepping slightly in front of Lydia as a warning for him not to touch her. He’s bad news, Lydia.

“I know,” she whispered back to me so low he couldn’t have heard her. 

“He calls himself the Boogieman. As silly as it sounds, keep your guard up, he’s very powerful.”

“We don’t need that ghost to be out of the picture anymore. He’d be too buy tending to you now, Lydia.” I heard Lydia exhale sharply, making it sound like a low hiss. 

“I’m not in that bad of shape. And besides, you can’t hurt me. My cat’s here to protect me.” As much as I adore Lydia, I had to say, that was the most cheesiest retort she can come up with. Sure, I’m an overweight cat, didn’t mean I was her one hundred pounds of foolproof armor. 

“A bakeneko? Rare creature, wherever did you find it?” he mused. 

“No matter, all cats and cat monsters alike have weaknesses. Your little ‘friend’s’ won’t be too hard to find.” And, as if he had been planning this from the very day he was born, he pulled out a bag of what I had feared, yet at the same time, loved so much I couldn’t resist. Cat nip. 

“Here kitty, kitty,” he teased at me. 

The small pouch with a delicios aroma dangled from his leather gloved hands. I snarled, trying to resist. It was as if the cat nip itself were betraying me. And all these years it had been my best friend in all of my cat toys.

“No!” Lydia’s scream entered my ears. 

Then to think, I can take the cat nip, and have the time of my eternity with it, or I can save Lydia, and she’ll probably give me a lifetime supplies of the stuff afterwards. Lydia. I had to go with Lydia. I can’t just ditch her for a bag of tasty stuff, I don’t even know what it’s made of. 

“Percy, don’t take it! Attack him! Now!”

Doing as I was told, I leapt toward the figure, claws outstretched and all, and gave it all I could. Sadly, thoug, all I could wasn’t enough. He knew I was coming, and countered the attack with a powerful blow of his own; a shot of energy to the stomach. I yelped and flew back, and Lydia gasped. 

“How cute,” he laughed, as I regained myself and watch the last of the energy ripple in the shape of electricity down his fingers and vanish. 

“Your kitten tries to protect you. Isn’t that just adorable?” I snarled at him as a threat to not call me a kitten. 

“Beej...” Lydia murmured, hoping he’d hear her. 

I guess she didn’t want to risk calling for him, I dunno.

"He’s at the Roadhouse. I made him stay there until’ you called for him after I busted you out of here. I didn’t have a damn clue this ass hole would pop up.

Lydia tensed, then silenced. She exhaled deeply in a sigh. I as well was wanting to do the same, but wanted to keep my guard as I blocked the cloaked figure from Lydia once more. 

“Your pet was amusing at first,” he began talking again, 

“But now he’s starting to annoy me. So guess what? He’s coming with us as.” He paced as he was talking, the one who calls himself the Boogieman clicking his heels in a slow beat. 

“As my practice target, of course.”

“What are you doing this time?” Lydia groaned. 

“It’s going to be a long process. One more Mayer to go, and I’ll just have to sit back and watch the show,” he laughed. 

“Of course, deary, you’ll be watching the show with me. So why spoil the ending?” 

I growled and hissed at him, swiping in his direction.

With a look in my direction, the hooded figure shot another one of his attacks of energy. Just in time, I swiped again, ripping the attack’s matter from its course and canceling it. After blocking, I countered, leaping at him again, this time with a little more success. He attacked with the same move he blocked me with earlier, but this time I shifted my body and got a grip on his arm. My teeth sank into his flesh, and I jerked and pulled like a dog playing tug-o-war, attempting to rip it off. He yelled in agony and gripped the back of my neck. His bony nails, almost like claws, dug into my skin in a painful hold, and I released his arm only to have my share of yelling.With the grip he had on my neck, the Boogieman lifted me from the ground, hitting a nerve that made my body limp, and threw me across the room. My side hit the wall hard, and the numbing feeling finally faded away. Yet, only to be replaced a sharp pain in my side.

Then I blacked out.

“Be-atle-joose! What in ze world are you doing?!”

“Shut it bone head!” I retorted, resuming pacing back and forth around the front room of the road house. 

“Did you ever find out why Lydia was ‘ere?” Jacques asked, crossing his bony arms. I spun on my heels and faced him, giving him the best snarl I could manage right now. I didn’t retort this time though. Instead, I just looked at him, holding the snarl that I was giving him. 

“Well?”

“No!” I shouted. Jacques shook his head and tsk’d at me, then walked out of the room muttering something in french. I heard my name somewhere in there too. Growling again, but this time at him, I brushed it off and started pacing again.

Damn, I was gonna put a hole in the ground before I stopped pacing. Why hadn’t she called for me yet? Percy promised that as soon as Fuzzo and Scuzzo were taken care of, he would make Lydia call for me. Since then, it’s been well over four fuckin’ hours. Where the hell were they?! 

“Beetlejuice, sit down or something. You’re starting to scare me,” Ginger pleaded, lowering from the ceiling a short distance from me. I ignored her, and continued my pacing again.

Why won’t they just leave me alone? I wouldn’t mind if they bugged me ten times over after everything is done with and stuff. But no. Not right now. 

“Beetlejuice!”

“No!” I finally yelled at her, and she shrank back frowning. Ginger had always known I never had a liking to her. She got over it eventually, but still frowned when I turned her down for anything like a walk or somethin’. Anyone would feel bad for her; I just don’t give a shit.

Grimacing to herself as she turned away, Ginger scurried down the same hallway Jacques went down a little while ago. And again, I shrugged it off. Now if the Monster Across the Street came over here bugging me about something, especially his little Poopsie, I’m gonna go insane!

Beetlejuice!

A tingling sensation crawled down my spine as someone’s voice filled my ears. There was a long pause, though, and I scowled.

Beetlejuice!

Again, the same voice. Her voice. Lydia was calling me! Well it’s about god damn time. I waited for the third sound of my name. And stood there waiting...for about five minutes. Yet still did I hear someone call for my name again.

Beetle...juice...

Yes! Finally! That third time I was called! It sounded weak, yet it was still the third time! I’m coming to rescue you, Lydia! And noone’s gonna stop me!


	10. Well... crap

The roadhouse before me vanished. Replaced by a whole new room entirely. It wasn’t like the old abandoned apartment like I had seen the last time she called for me. Mostly, I’m surprised she didn’t go home after she called. Guess he was shielding her from one possibility, but can’t keep her from all of ‘em. If she can’t go home calling my name three times, then I go wherever she was. Both are fifty fifty chances, and he didn’t want Lydia leaving just yet. But if he were to leave her alone for a split second long enough for her to call my name, then she could get away with me at least showing up.

Crooked floorboards were placed beneath my feet, and I looked down to eye them for a second. We were backstage somewhere. I noticed that by the ripped, hanging blue curtains to my right. Peering out from behind them, noone was there. Coast was clear.

I kept my steps quiet, and walked to the other side of the stage, where I found her strapped to a chair again, her head hung low. I wanted to scream her name joyously, and get us both out of here. But I can’t. If I just hide in the real world from this point on, he would still succeed in murdering the Mayor, then start plagues on the real world to get his own demonic minions, from the misunderstood souls living there now.

Lydia’s hair was undone, her hair hung around her face. Over the while she had been held captive, she’d grown split ends. God, it was so long. Her eyes were hidden by her bangs, which she still kept short. I wanted to whisper ‘Hey Lydia! Lydia over here!’ but that would just blow my cover...damn. Instead of doing that, I just tip toed my way over to her.

Eventually, I became in arm’s length of her. She looked so fragile...so...so...I can’t think of the word! It was horrifying. It was... It was...

“Beej...” she murmured, out of breath. It sounded like she was crying. My heart sank at the sound. I mean, I’ve heard Lydia cry before but...not like this. Not in pain even close to this. She was hurt, sad, in need. And even if it kills me three more times, I will get her out of here!

“Lydia...” My voice breathed out subconciously, and I wasn’t able to stop myself. Lydia looked up sharply, her eyes were red with tears, and her face contorted with pain.

“Beetlejuice!” she murmured, yet very excited to see me. I was happy to see her too. Hell, more than happy. Over joyed! Lydia pulled forward in the chair, attempting to reach out for me. I stretched out a hand and lightly caressed her cheek, wiping away the hot tears. 

“What have they done to you...and where the hell is Percy?”

“He took Percy away, Beej. I don’t know where he is, but he took him away. He needs to feed off my spirit to keep himself thriving with power, and already has half of it.”

I gritted my teeth, and balled my fists. 

“He can’t kill Percy, though. The only way to kill a bakeneko is to cut off it’s head, I wouldn’t tell him that though. I wouldn’t tell him anything, beej. I think they’re-”

“Right here?”

Lydia and I both looked over to see the cloaked figure standing where I had appeared first. 

“Thanks for telling me the secret, Lydia. It’s a good thing you’re well educated or you might not have known this at all.”

A large black mass was slung over his shoulder, and the tail dragged below approximately where his knees were. The large unconcious cat was thrown on the floor in front of us. 

“Percy! Percy wake up!” Lydia yelled, crying and pleading. The cat’s eyes were closed, but he was definately breathing. 

“Don’t make such a fuss, Lydia. The Mayor is on his way to set up the props for the big town meeting tonight.”

“Enough!” I yelled, and juiced a latter by the dark figure. The latter turned into a large snake and attacked him. But, whoever the hell this guy was, was strong enough to push it back with a flow of energy. 

“Don’t you realize it yet? The more noticed I become, the more alive I get. Soon both worlds will know I exist and eventually I actually will!”

“What is he saying, Lyds?” I turned to Lydia. Her head was bowed again, and her breathing a little more heavy.

“He...He means that more people are believing in him, Beej. The more his story is retold, the stronger he gets. Mixing with how many times his name is probably said in the Neitherworld with the Real World makes him stronger by the minute.” She became out of breath and took a few breathers before continuing, 

“I think... I think as long as you don’t believe that he’s real, you can hit him.”

Lydia was smart. She always was. Hearing this, I snarled and turned in his direction.

“Don’t believe in the Boogieman...” Lydia sighed, and then began to grow limp. 

“Dear Lydia has reached the last of her energy... Better save that for later,” the ‘Boogieman’ laughed as I leapt in his direction. Just a story. He’s just a story.

As I repeated that to myself, I juiced a few things in mid-air, turning them into straps and wrapped them around his being. Then with that, I punched his wierd looking face under the hood as hard as I probably could. The figure retreated and flew back, but the juice I used faded quickly and he was back on his feet. The hood was now down, revealing the head mask completely. God it looked so wierd. And hideous too! Kinda cool, actually...

He laughed lowly, and charged at me with the energy he used on the snake I juiced up earlier. It hit me strait on, right in the chest and I felt the electricity in the energy jerk every dead muscle in my body. I fell back and hit the wall hard, my head knocking against the old concrete full force. 

“One person not believing me barely does any damage. Two people weaken me about an inch. You’ll need a whole crowd to actually know that I’m not real to do anything big.” 

I slowly got up, and began to float out of his reach. 

“Well who would believe your story? It’s so rediculous, Lydia’s chicken livered father knew you were fake since he was three!” I taunted, and flew out of his reach when he tried to strike. He began chasing me towards the other side of the stage, and eventually, I made it out to the seats, taunting him even more.

It was hard, too hard, to breathe. I swear to god, it felt like sitting in a hot pool of vinigar. Or trying to breathe with a whale on your chest. Heaving as much as I could, I started to wheeze. How to get my energy back. Well, that was simple, I just hadn’t thought of it til’ now. I have a soul, a spirit, right? Make decisions. I’m going to be a mega bitch and purposely fail college. Okay, well, that thought made me feel a little better. I’ll ditch art, and take up a new interest in zoology. I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to tend to creatures in the bug house.

Again, a little better. The more decisions you make to yourself, the more is recorded on what you’re like as a person down on your spirit. And then vualah! It got extended. I was nice, now I’m a bitch. Well, got my energy back, so I’m even nicer! Yay me! I’m so smart!

Lifting my head, I looked at Percy’s unconcios body. Boogie had just chased Beetlejuice from backstage, so I have time. 

“Percy...” I murmured. 

The cat’s chest heaved in a sigh, and I tried again. 

“Percy, Please!”

Not now, Lydia. I’m tired...

“Percy if you go to sleep you’ll die!!”

I promise...

“Percy get your lazy ass up!!”

I can’t Lydia...I’m sorry.

“Percy...” I cried. 

“Percy I don’t want you to die... I want you to live Percy! Wake up now! God damnit!”

Lydia...

I cried. I sobbed. Tears streamed down my face. I can’t do anything, I’m tied to this god damn chair and I can’t help Percy. I looked around me. Knowing my luck, there probably wouldn’t be a knife anywhere. But then... no wait, wait, waiiiit. I stand, no, sit, corrected! There was a large knife for cutting the ties off of packages and such to my very left. Reaching my foot out for it, I stretched my leg as far back as I could. Damn, still couldn’t reach. Trying to throw half of my body weight, I hit it. The knife rolled farther away.

Damnit! Wait- wha- WHOAH! “Mother fuck!” I yelled outloud when the chair fell over and almost squish my arm. It felt bruised, but not broken, thank god.

I looked up, and yes! Yes, thank you god! I’ll never do a bad thing again! The knife was reaching distance of my mouth. Stretching my neck and slightly kicking up with my legs, even though that might not do much, I grabbed the handle with my teeth. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!

Wait... shit. My hands were behind the chair, not in front of. I spat the knife out and sobbed again. 

“Damnit, Percy... please! Get up!”

Lydia, I...

“Percy, if you don’t, I’ll die!”

But you can’t die.

“I will if you don’t get off your ass! Please, at least cut me loose from the chair,” I pleaded. 

I can’t get up, Lydia...I’m sorry.

“FUCK!” I cried out again in frustration and let my head fall to the floor, not able to help the tears falling down my face. 

“We’re fucking doomed...”

By some god damn miracle, though, I heard a thump. Then another. When you wish upon a star, Lydia, the voice of Percy’s most used form whispered. I held my breath and opened my eyes. Percy was barely standing, but still, moving. Slowly, and carefully, stepping bit by bit in my direction, the massive cat struggled not to fall. His tail held high and swayed and twitched as much as he could get it to, to keep his balance and prevent him from becoming another heap on the floor.

The black mass made it’s way over in my direction, and gingerly niped at the ropes. As soon as the ropes tieing my torso to the chair were broken, I bent my knees up to my chest and kicked the chair down and away from my body. Turning my back to the cat, I waited for him to bite off the ropes holding my wrists together too.

Yes! As soon as they were free, I lunged around and wrapped my arms tightly around the cat’s neck. 

“Oh, Percy!” I cried into his blood stained fur. 

Ow... he murmured, mostly to himself. 

I laughed slightly and pulled away. 

“Show me what hurts,” I said, inspecting him. 

“Maybe I can use a few things here as bandages...”

Everything. he groaned. I took the knife cut chunks of the curtains by us into thick strands, and wrapped them tightly around where Percy’s paws and legs were the bloodiest.

I toppled over onto my knees in the process, as a loud crash shook the theatre. The cackle of the Boogieman arose, but was cut off by a sound of shattering glass and then Beetlejuice laughed. Lydia, it might be best to hurry...

“Don’t rush me,” I muttered, 

Struggling with more bandages, then cut a loose strand off with the knife and stood back to make sure it was do-able. A part of his right hind leg had a bandage on it, and his left front forearm was covered in the make shift bandages as well. 

“It should do for now. I left a few openings so you could stay flexible and scratch,” I said, then stood back. 

I think they’re in section B by now. All the guests are going to be using section A only. I have an idea, so just clean up this section, and I’ll try to keep Boogie busy with Beetlejuice.

I nodded. How did I not know that my cat was smart? Or was that from the transformation? I dunno. Shrugging this off, I peered from behind the shredded curtains that I borrowed pieces from and saw that there wasn’t much damage. A few toppled chairs here and there. Maybe our luck was beginning to change after all? Then again...

I winced as another loud crashing sound was heard, followed by the menacing roar of Percy’s cry. 

“I better hurry,” I said to myself, and ran out to the chairs. 

Picking them all up one by one, I scurried to keep my balance too as lould crashes again shook the building. Hopefully it would stop by the time the people got here for the meeting.

Setting everything back into its original shape was kinda difficult if the house was literally jumping. There for, it took a little longer than it probably should have...

Another crash. God damnit, how is a girl supposed to clean with all of this noise going around?! I tried working faster, pulling and pushing my arm muscles as hard as I could while pulling chairs off the ground and setting them nicely back into their rows.

Shuffling from the back of the room near the entrence made me stop. I looked up as the first few people walked through the doors and began taking their seats. Another crash caused a few to fall down. 

“What is going on in here?!”

“Um, they’re redecorating in Theatre B. The area’s forbidden for now, but keep your voices low,” I rushed. 

“One of the workers is having a bad day and has really bad hearing, if he hears any of us he’ll go beserk!”

Crashing noises again, this time more like wood breaking and concrete scattering.

They all nodded in respect to my request, and I thanked the heavens that the people here in the neitherworld were nice enough to consider me.

More people began entering the theatre from the main entrence, and others who have already been warned had hushed those coming in. I guess the crashing noises frightened them, I don’t know, and yet, I didn’t care. I stood up on the stage after most of the seats were beginning to get filled and looked over the mass of ghouls and ghosts.

They all were a little early...and the Mayor was going to be a little late, like he had always planned.

Whispers and low kept conversations started filling the room. Well, it was better than the noise level that could have been. I just had to keep it down when it got too loud.

Man, now I know how the teachers back in High School felt when we were the ones talking...

I skid a few feet back, my claws digging into the carpet as far as they’d go to slow myself to a stop. Another energy attack was thrown at me in the process of my stopping, and I leapt strait up into the air to avoid it. Beetlejuice, swerved around the Boogieman man like an annoying fly, and faked one attack while throwing another.

Landing on all fours near the two, I threw my claws wildly at the figure and got a good hold on his torso, but was easily knocked back, to my demise.

The boogieman shot another energy ball at me, and this time I was hit. Destracted from Beetlejuice, though, the striped ally of mine gave a head on blow to the Boogieman’s face, which sent him flying back.

Rolling lazily on my feet, I twitched an ear. Murmuring. That of a large crowd too. Oh, damnit, if only I could speak to Beetlejuice in this form to warn him, but I couldn’t. The sound was faint, luckily, so they won’t be able to hear it while I barely could.

Whatever Lydia was doing to keep the crowd quiet was...convincing? It almost seemed unreal. Well, whatever, Beetlejuice and I would just have to hold him off until’ Lydia got hold of the mayor and... oh shit.

Piss!

The crowd in the theatre next to us just suddenly went wild, and the fight we were currently battling in paused. The Boogieman laughed quietly to himself, gradually growing louder with each small chuckle, and Beetlejuice frowned. The Mayor was now present. 

“Well it’s about damn time,” the Boogieman laughed and pulled his hood over his head. 

“I’d love to stay and chat, and sadly thanks to your bakeneko, I don’t have anyone to keep you occupied back here. Never-the-less, I’ll make this a quick pause before we continue, hm?”

And without giving us a chance to retort, he was gone, like a flash pulled back slowly into the shadows behind the curtains of theatre B and disappeared.

Beetlejuice sat there grinding his teeth as I shaped into the first form I had taken on since I had become a...whatever it’s called.

“Beej, Lydia and I had an idea but-”

“But what? You’ve had lots of ideas lately, Percy. But as good as they usually sound, they’re not all going to work. I have to hand it to ya, cats can be clever, but we need something engenious. Either that, or something that will boost whatever Lydia was doing back there.”

While he talked I picked at one of the bandages on my arm, the one on my leg hidden behind jeans, and tightened it a little. It was kind of helpful that they shifted a bit with me. Though, I didn’t really quite understand how that happened.

“Good point, forget my idea then, how are we going to improve the first plan?”

“Well I uh... don’t really know,” he said, scratching his head, then flailing his arms in stress. 

“Gah! We need something soon or Lydia’s going to be dinner for that freak!”

“I could take her place,” I shrugged, remembering that I had taken her shape before. 

“What?” Beetlejuice looked at me like I was retarted. And I probably was. But as I shifted shapes and became the small body of Lydia Deetz once again, Beetlejuice just stared in stunned awe. 

“You can turn into her?!”

“Long story.”

“That’s a good fuckin’ time to tell me! Lets just make this up as we go. Starting with confusing the Boogieman!”

I smirked, her voice escaping my lips in a soft laugh. It was...wierd being my own mistress. Yet, then again, I wasn’t. I looked like her, but just wasn’t. Crouching down and bending my knees, I shot forward off the ground into a fast leap, with as much speed as a cheetah; or something like that. Jumping and leaping from chair to chair, I finally made back stage and to the door that linked both theatre rooms.

Beetlejuice floated close behind me, and dressed, looking just like Lydia, I shaped a few features on the clothes and skin to mock her current appearence exactly.

And before we knew it, there Lydia was, standing just to the side of the Mayor by the stand of microphones in front of the large crowd. My guess was that he was going to announce that even if the murders over all of the Neitherworld’s leadership were being commited, he was going to run for campeign again anyway, and try to stop it. From the stories Lydia has told me from the minute her and Beetlejuice aren’t around, I’d say that’s just about what he was doing.

Boogie’s appearence materialyzed in a shadow behind them, and I sped my pace.

It was a mere shock for him when I zipped past between the two in Lydia’s form and rammed head on into the shadow, breaking his concentration and setting his attention towards defense.

“What the hell?!” the Mayor yelled outloud turning his torso and taking a step back away from us as I struggled with the hooded figure, pulling his hood even further down his face to make it harder to see. He struggled beneath me, and his hands began to charge. Damn, stupid energy attack. I arched my back, pulling away slightly and waiting.

“Percy?” Lydia squeaked as I snapped back just in time to dodge the attack and charged at him again, this time going cat.

The large mass of my feline form embraced the Boogieman for a split second, but he pulled away an launched himself into the air, kicking me hard in the chest before I could react.

Damn, he was fast.

Beetlejuice had kept hovering above, watching the first attack. And when Boogie was launched into the air, darted like a bullet and rammed into him head on as well. The Boogieman was knocked back into a few curtains and Beej juiced them, struggling to keep him down and prevent him from preforming his energy attacks.

I pounced up on all fours and thought fast. Lydia?

“Percy!” Lydia hugged me, not caring about the rushing crowd, struggling to get out the door. All the screams filling the room made it hard to hear her, but I still managed, and rubbed my head against her shoulder. Lydia, I’ll hold the crowed in, you tell them what to do. I ordered, and felt her not.

“Okay, Percy. I’ll do my best,” she said quietly. She must be tramatized! Either that or she’s just use to this, I don’t know.

Pulling away, I launched myself at the door and broke filled the gap between the running ghouls and the door. They were all like startled elephants, running like no tomorrow and busting through any wall they could find. Seriously.

Growling low, I stepped forward and threatened them to stay away from the exit with a loud snarl. Just as I had hoped, they slowly inched away, quieting down in fear. Lydia ran by my side and began speaking as fast as she could and urgently, as Beetlejuice lost grip of the boogieman and attempted to hold him off. 

“Everyone please, we need your help!”

“And we need to go home! It’s dangerous here!” one of the ghouls in the crowd replied hastily. 

“No, listen! The person...thing behind the murders is him!” she motioned to the cloaked figure struggling to take down Beetlejuice as he wildly flew around him and gave him a hard time, 

“And he’s brought to life by a story. I know it sounds stupid-”

“Damn right it does!”

I snarled loudly, taking a sharp step forward and the silence stretched on.

“Just. Listen.” Lydia said through clenched teeth, voice growing louder, 

“We need your help. Now stop being ass holes and cooperate, or all of us will die again! Maybe worse! So just help, or I’ll let my pretty little cat feed on every last one of you!” she threatened. 

Again, long silence. 

“Well... what do we do?” one of the monsters asked, 

Lydia smiled with relief and sighed, my body losing it’s tenseness just a little.

“Simple,” she said, “Just keep thinking to yourselves that the boogieman isn’t real.”

After a minute, the silence stretched on again with the larage monsters holding all the eyes, how many or where ever they may be, closed. As the silence stretched on again for possibly the fift time tonight, a loud crash sounded across the theatre, and shook the whole building. Lydia smiled as I let out a long breath.

The Boogieman was now actually hit-able.


	11. So Now What?

I was literally about to snap. These people were absolutely irritating! 

‘I wanna go home!’

‘It’s too dangerous here.’

‘Lets all be big fat cry babies, and get on Lydia’s fucking nerves!!’

AH!! It’s SO much worse than baby-sitting the whiniest kid in town. I’m about to rip my fucking hair out!

But yes, finally, they actually start listening. 

“Just keep running the thought that the Boogieman isn’t real over and over in your head!” I was gonna shout, but they listened before I could. 

Every one of them stood calmly, which was weird because of the noise going on behind us, and just thought silently to themselves. I heard Percy growl with delight behind me as a loud crash sounded within the theater somewhere back stage. He was, actually, the only one happy to hear that. Everyone else started screaming and wanted to run again. 

“ENOUGH!!” I yelled over all of their voices. 

Even though I was still tired from losing half of my energy, I was too angry to give a shit. Everyone stopped under the fury in my tone and Percy roared to add to the tension. 

“Keep running that through your minds, just do it and we’ll take care of the rest! If you fucking stop I swear to God your afterlife ends NOW!”

They stopped.

Closing their eyes again, I nodded to Percy and the large cat, almost losing the bandages I put on him earlier, pranced off in the direction of all the racket.

I wanted to go watch him get his ass kicked, but sadly Boogie’s pain will have to wait for now, I had to make sure that these people stay here. 

“Everyone, follow me!” I finally yelled. 

Their concentration broke and I ran out the door into the front room. Making sure I was being followed, I scurried down the stairs into the basement between the two theaters and went into the farthest room into the back possible. 

“You all stay in here, and keep thinking! I’m gonna go help them-”

“But Lydia, if you go you’ll get killed!”

I stopped dead in my tracks. Who was that? It sounded way too familiar. 

“G...Ginger?” I guessed out loud. 

The large pink spider stood there in front of the huddling scared crowd, those large lips pulled into a frown. 

“You’re only human, Lydia, if you go out there he can kill you! Beetlejuice would die too, if that happened. Not to mention Jacques and I.” Her voice was small, weak with fear and confusion. 

“Ginger what are you doing!”

“Jacques figured something was up, otherwise Beetlejuice would be in the real world looking for ya. He covered most of the city, I checked a few down town places and heard racket coming from in here and got caught up in the mess.”

“You guys! Ginger you could have gotten killed yourself!” I complained. 

“Yes, but Lydia you’re still alive, you have so much to live for. My afterlife ending here wouldn’t be so bad, I’ve had it good over the past few centuries or so. It’s you who needs to be saved here.”

I didn’t know what to say to this. My teeth gritted and I sighed, looking down. 

“Yes, but Ginger, I have to go help Beej! He and Percy both need me!”

At this, she seemed to smile. 

“Promise you won’t get yourself hurt?”

“Promise!” I smiled too as my heart began to beat normally again. 

Ginger lifted her back side up and webs shot out at light speed, wrapping everyone up into a cocoon that they struggled, but failed, to get out of.

“I’ll watch everyone here, Lydia. Can’t trust everyone in the Nietherworld you know.”

I nodded. 

“Be careful!” she warned me again and I smiled at her and raced up the stairs and closed the door behind me.

It wasn’t much to keep everyone safe, but a hiding spot seemed like a choice to me since we need all the help we can get. Present or not, they need to be near us.

Pushing the door to the theater open and bursting through, I stopped to get a good look at what was going on. From the current positions of the three that I had left just minutes ago, the again(what was with him and putting up his hood?) cloaked figure stood center stage as Percy was out in the audience chairs, ready to attack into the stage again, and Beetlejuice was far to the cat’s left floating and ready to hit.

They seemed pretty busy. Beetlejuice flew strait forward towards Boogie at the same time Percy did, and both hit him strait on, but the mean old Boogieman didn’t really put up with that for more than a minute.

Breathing something like he just ran a long distance, he stood there, ready to throw another attack when I decided what I was going to do. He was now hit-able, right? Well, I’ll hit him, then.

I crouched down and snuck around the side of the theater, hidden in shadows, and made my way to the entrence back stage. When completely out of their site through the door, I loosened up and ran full speed to the supply area. There were ropes and strings for tying the curtains back and scenery for plays and such. Then there were costumes in the far corner, some futuristic looking, some extra large and extra small, others just rags thrown together for the peasant look. I don’t know what kind of performances they had here in the Neitherworld, but something also told me I didn’t want to know.

Looking at the ‘Knight in Shining Armor’ costume hang neatly beside the rest, along with bridal gowns and a Romeo and Juliet look, I pondered. Maybe I can hit him with a Wedding Dress? Nah, the Knight’s sword will do, I suppose. Grabbing for the sword, I fell over and landed on my side, hitting my head hard on the ground as a huge blow shook the theater again.

Man I hope that didn’t affect everyone in the basement.

Getting up and regaining myself, I grabbed at the sword again, this time getting a firm grip of it in my hands. Palms sweaty, I held the sword for a minute and looked at my beaten reflection within the blade. Something told me that none of this was going to be easy.

Floating in mid-air, I whirled around to look at the exit through my now, even more, ragged hair. Where’d she go? Where’d they go? Everyone was gone except for the ass hole who was behind all this, Percy, and I. I flinched and turned back to face them at the sound of Percy’s cry. Sure, we were able to damage the guy now, but it didn’t really bother his energy attacks, whatever they were. The blue glowing ball of electricity-looking stuff flew in my direction and I yelped, falling over and pulling out of it’s way.

Just as fast as I had dodged it, I lunged myself at full speed towards the so called ‘Boogieman’ and decided to juice his cloak this time.

The hood became a mouth and swallowed his head, while the ripped ends grew heads and spun in a direction to twist around him. Why haven’t I thought of this earlier? Watching him struggle under the attack by his own clothes, I cackled loudly.

Percy was suddenly by my side, his chest vibrating in a soft purr. He wasn’t so bad, I guess. Probably gonna give me hell once we’re done with all this, though, if we ever get out of here.

When he was done fussing under the homicidal cloth that I had juiced up, he shocked himself and pretty much killed the given life instantly, the heads going limp and giving away, and the mouth releasing his head.

I stopped laughing.

He stood there, breathing heavily as his chest expanded and then retreated towards the middle over and over again. His back arched forward, like he was going to pounce on us and hand us our asses. I gulped, why be this scared now? I was always a scaredy cat, just as much as Percy use to be, only not all the time. Only when I was in trouble.

And something told me we were definitely in trouble.

“Percy...” I muttered. 

“What’s the plan nooowww?”

The large cat at my side grunted and let out a force of air in a fake sneeze.

The figure in center stage just stood there, and so did we. It was like all of us were frozen in time, like we all couldn’t get a grip on reality at just this point.

We had made a mess. That’s all I could notice as this time. The whole theater was just wrecked, chairs more like broken from their hinges, walls cracked, holes in the floors, half the curtains were draped to the floor and ripped from their place on the ceiling. What were we gonna do now?

Just stand here?

What were we waiting for? Easter? Christmas? Halloween?

Then, just out of the norm, I decided to attack, and headed full speed towards the Boogieman, hands gripped at his neck and pushed him far back into the concrete wall. Cracks now formed where his body hit the hard rock, and I pushed with all my might.

He pushed back at me, hands automatically flying to my neck, either trying to push me off or to make me choke too. Either way, my shoulders were in the way and he couldn’t get a good grip.

Fingers turning into blades, I smiled, he was out of breath at last. Or, so I hoped.

Something sharp shocked me in my neck and I flew back just as fast as I had pushed him into the wall, sending me to the ground and then sliding off the end of the stage into a few chairs.

A burning sensation ran up my spine and I screamed as loud as I ever had. The feeling told me that we were going to lose. That I will never be able to see Lydia ever again and the last time I’ll ever get to see her was tied to a freakin’ chair, hoping for me to save her and I couldn’t.

I couldn’t do a god damn thing! Gritting my teeth against the pain, I slowly sat up. Boogie was pissed now. No, beyond pissed. Probably every other emotion of anger and as far as anger could go.

I heard Percy hissing behind me, and I looked up to see him arching his back and taking a step away from the stage, though still facing it, eyes narrowed menacingly and his sharp teeth baring in a threat to back off. 

“You’ll have it now!” Boogie yelled, his shadow now shielding me from the light above the stage. He stood there at the edge, almost ready to jump off and finish us. 

“Sorry you won’t be able to see the rest of the show,” he laughed.

“No!” came a familiar shriek, and then a dead silence followed by a sharp sound.

My eyes widened and I sat up, ignoring the large wave of pain as I reached out toward the interference. I wanted to scream. I wanted to jump for joy again for the first time in so long now that I could see her, but then the frightening image came to my head and I finally processed what was happening.

Lydia stood there, shaking at the knees holding a sword that pierced through the Boogieman’s chest. The cloaked enemy looked her direction, and backed away slightly as if inching away from the pain. Holding the sword with both hands, Lydia wrenched her arms and twisted it where his heart would be, pushing it further into his body.

The first time I’d ever hear Boogie scream, his voice rising in a painful tone and I held my eyes on the two, not wanting to miss a second of it.

Unfortunately, the site wasn’t one to last long. In a state of both anger and shock, Boogie forced himself at Lydia and smacked her hands off the sword. Grabbing the handle, he pulled it out and did something I’d never want to watch in either my life, nor my afterlife.

And I watched...

He took the sword with one hand and flung it wildly at Lydia. Blood splattering like a wave from her body and raining to the floor. I stood in mere horror, eyes wide and becoming watery from instant tears. My emotions reacted immediately, as my body did not. 

“You little wretch!” Boogie hissed, pulling up the sword to lash at her again. 

“Forget your soul! You be damned this instant!” And as he swung down to hit her, I winced at the second sound of her flesh splitting under its force. This time, blood didn’t splatter out like it did. Instead, nothing happened. The Boogieman sat there, staring down at her body now just barely limp in a heap on the floor. Her head lifted when the blade just merely smacked against her shoulder but did no more damage, her mouth leaking with blood pulled into a red, gory smile.

Lydia’s eyes were half closed, weak, but were kept on him like she were staring at something beautiful. 

“I’m not one to be damned this instant...” her voice was small, quiet, yet under the scared and awed silence, still heard. Her breathing was hard, and she gasped outl oud before speaking again. 

“You’re not real. You can’t harm me. I, and many others, know that. And, Mr. Boogieman, without us knowing your real, you’re just a body brought to life by imagination...”

She cut off again, in a painful cough, and tried to sit up, but failed. Her body falling back to the floor, Lydia let out a slight yelp and lifted her head again, just slightly. 

“Wounded in the heart, now you may be damned when you fall. Soul devoured in darkness, thou shall die,” she spat before falling again, and this time not deciding to get up.

Finally, I could now feel my body, and screamed. 

“LYDIA!!” I yelled, getting up and rushing to her side.

I lifted her torso from the ground, and shook her slightly. 

“Lydia, stay with me! Please, don’t die yet! You’re supposed to go to college! You were supposed to live, Lydia so god Damnit, LIVE!” I cried, pulling her into me and wrapping my arms around her, sobbing.

The sound of metal hitting the ground brought my attention to her murderer. Setting Lydia down, ignoring whether she had moved or not, I had set myself on killing who did this to her. 

“Damn you...” I muttered, turning my eyes, now stained with tears, towards the dick head who did this to her.

“Damn you to hell! Damned you will be, you ignorant mother fucker!” I lunged myself at him, at the same time Percy did. 

Both of us hit him with hard force, though he didn’t hit back. He was still stuck stiff, my guess still in shocked fear that he lost. He was going to die, because of one little girl.

A ghost and a big mean cat weren’t able to actually hurt the guy, but one little human girl was able to take all of his power, his pride away. And all she had to do was now, believe, be herself. Be Lydia.

Percy knocked him to the ground and then kicked him into the air. I flew up and kicked him back to the ground again. The large black cat caught him between his teeth and tossed him up again.

It was like playing catch.

The next time he came flying my way into the air, I forced my open palm through his flesh, not minding if his blood got on my sleeve now that Lydia’s was all over my left shoulder.

The move seemed to have done it. A light glow came from his chest, and forced back, the whole room became white. The feeling of his guts being rearranged and smothered under my grip slowly disappeared, and I felt numb, completely, unable to see through all the white.

What the shit?

It didn’t feel right.

None of it felt right.

I was nothing but a heap on the floor a second ago, now I’m just... floating... in nothing. Like being trapped in darkness, but it was all white. I couldn’t see two inches in front of my face, like the thickest fog in the world. I couldn’t even look down and see the red poncho. It was all just... BLAH!

And then it dimmed. Still unable to see, I panicked. Was I dieing? Had I lost too much blood under the wound that use to be on my shoulder? It was gone now. Or... I thought it was.

The stinging pain of the sword wound slowly came back, and I cringed in pain. My whole body, floating in nowhere, jerked back and I felt my hair move about me, undone in it’s up do, and flowed as I moved slightly from the pain. Like I were under water.

The fabric from the poncho seemed to do the same and I sat there, breathing evenly as the pain returned bit by bit. What the hell was this? 

Beetlejuice! I opened my mouth, but nothing came out, just the thought of his name.

Percy?

No telepathic replies from my cat. What happened. I frantically struggled in the dimming fog, and then stopped at a totally new feeling. My hair began to fall down to my back, and the clothes from the poncho falling to their normal places. Frozen stiff from fear, I noticed that I, too, was falling now. And I just sat there, gradually feeling my body become held down to wherever I was, until’ it finally felt normal. Like gravity had finally appeared wherever I was.

Then it was black.

Why was it so?

I blinked, or, tried to. I couldn’t blink! Why not!

Oh...my eyes were already closed. Opening them, I gasped. Grass! Yes, I was laying in grass! The soft feeling of green grass against my skin ran down my body and filled me with an excited sensation, but then pain returned again, and I sat up and jerked in pain.

I took a look at my surroundings. A tree, driveway, large white house... wait... large white house! My house! I stood up and then jerked again at the pain, and realized that my clothes were changed. I was now wearing what I use to wear as a child here in the real world, the dress with the leggings and the purple cloth around the weist, though now it fit me as an adult. I never did get around to making a new one my size...wonder where it came from?

Oh well! Who cares! I’m home! Gripping my shoulder, I shuffled to the front door in the tattered clothes and slashed shoulder, and rapped on the door as hard as I could.

I could barely breathe. This must be a dream! I’m home! I’m really home!! And I’d rather be nowhere else!

The door slid open steadily. Slowly. And I sat there, eager in my stance as Dad, a large frown on his face, opened the door. 

“Daddy!!” I sobbed, ignoring the pain and leaping through the door, holding my dad in a hug that I’ll never, ever let go of! 

“P-pp-pumpkin?!” he yelled, surprised, then hugged me back tightly. 

“Oh, Pumpkin we’ve looked everywhere for you!!”

“What is it Char- LYDIA!” Delia screamed as she came in from the kitchen joined the hug. The three of us just stood there, sobbing all together for a while, maybe for a good hour or two.

I stood there, finishing the rest of my packing as Delia called the airport and arranged a flight to Nashville Tennessee. My hair was pulled back in a messy bun, and I sighed as the mess of it left a few strands in my face as I pulled them back behind my ear, only leaving the bangs to linger above my eyes. 

“So you’re leaving already...” a voice, one that I had missed so much, sighed behind me. 

“Beej... I’ve stayed behind for two weeks after my original parting date... I have to go.” I frowned, turning around to see him standing behind me. 

I never did put him back since the last time I let him out a day after the whole mess. We didn’t really speak of it much, nor did we really speak at all. For some reason it just... grew so awkward.

“That gash in your shoulder healing well?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you tell Chuck and D about it?”

“That I was out looking for Percy and fell down a steep hill into a ditch and passed out for a while. The two weeks were to make sure that I was fine before leaving.”

And then there was silence. We stood there, just staring at each other for a moment until’ the silent serenade between us intimidated me too much to even look at him anymore. I bit my lip, and took to staring down at my shoe and kicking at thin air lightly with it. 

“Lyds, I...”

My eyes snapped up to see him standing there, cheeks slightly pink. I cocked my head to the side, a confused look on my face. 

“When I saw him slash you...with the sword, I...” he gulped. 

“I can’t say it, but I have ta, babes. I thought you were done for...”

“Oh, Beetlejuice,” I sighed, pulling away slightly.

I thought I was too, to be truthful, but... him, worrying about me like that. The way he said it, the look on his face while saying it, was just so... so...

“I know, corny, right?”

“No! No, not at all!” I disagreed, hugging him instantly as if to help him feel better about this. 

“It’s okay to feel that way. We’re best friends, right? It’s okay to worry about your friends,” I comforted him. 

“That’s the problem, babes.”

“Huh?”

“We’re friends... and I don’t want that. I want more than that. That’s the problem.”

I couldn’t reply, trapped in his hug, I dared not to pull away in fear of letting him take it the wrong way. My eyes widened, and I felt my heart skip a beat. I didn’t expect this; nor did my body, as I started to shake at the knees.

To be truthful, now that I thought of it, I wanted more too. I guess that I was just so busy telling myself that he couldn’t possibly love me of all people, that I never stopped to say that I loved him anyway. True, this was a little cliché, but... it’s what happens.

“God, now I feel so stupid!” Beetlejuice cringed and jerked away, turning his back to me. 

“You probably won’t want to talk to me for a while, wouldn’t you,” he growled, fisting his hands and I could tell he was mentally kicking himself where the sun don’t shine.

“It’s not stupid,” the words escaped my lips before I could pull them back and say something else. I closed my mouth and stood frozen behind him, watching him turn his head slowly to me with a look that said 

‘Are you fucking serious?’

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s not stupid. What’s wrong with wanting more? I want more,” I said cautiously, feeling the blood rush to my face and I took a small step back. 

“Lyds...babes...” he murmured, turning around and inching forward. 

“You tellin’ me that ya don’t care if I...” he choked a minute, 

“L...Loov...Love, you?”

I laughed nervously. Never thought he’d actually be able to say the word. 

“Of course, silly!” I smiled, growing a bit more confident. 

“Cause I... I love ya too, Beej... I have for a while now and didn’t realize it til’ I almost lost you.”

“Aw, babes, you know you would never lose me!” He smiled and suddenly pulled me into a hug, lifting my feet off the ground and spinning in one circle before placing my feet back to the floor but not letting go of me. 

“I know,” I smiled sheepishly. 

“Wow, this went so much better than I thought it would’ve...” he said, trailing off. 

“Oh! I got something for ya, too! A present your graduation present,” he smiled and pulled a neatly wrapped present from behind his back. I took it eagerly, and looked at him. 

“Well?” he said, gesturing a hand to it, 

“Open it.”

I went crazy. I ripped the wrapper right off and pulled off the lid, going through a bunch of tissue paper before reaching what lay inside.

I gasped, pulling it out gently and looking at the neat little scrap book with wide, glassy eyes. 

“Oh, Beetlejuice...” I murmured, letting my fingers run gently down the cover. I heard him chuckle as I opened it up and looked inside. They were a bunch of pictures, from the old days. From when I was twelve and he was just...Beetlejuice. The care free, easy days, before everything got so complicated. 

“Didn’t have enough money to buy somethin’ nice...” he muttered, my eyes never leaving the pages decorated with pictures or a beetle or two. 

“So I thought I’d make ya somethin’. Now don’t think I’ve gone soft or anythin’!”

“Beej,” I finally started to giggle, looking up at him and setting the book down on my bed, 

“It’s the best graduation gift anyone could ever give! No matter if it’s a high tech computer or what, it will always be my favorite,” I said, giving him a hug. 

“Thank you so much BJ! I really love it!”

He hugged me back, and I felt his head rest on my shoulder. 

“I love you...” I breathed, and I felt him chuckle again, 

“Love ya too, babes,” he said.

With the sound of a click, we both let go and he zipped over to the door hiding behind it as Charles came through. 

“Lydia, you’re going to be late, get the last of your bags and lets hit the road,” he smiled and grabbed a bag. 

“Oh, what’s this?” he asked, looking at the scrap book. 

“Oh! A gift from Mr. Beetleman. Let’s just get going, huh dad?” I smiled and grabbed the book and another bag. 

Taking one last look at my room, I frowned. It was now skimmed, practically empty. I was definitely taking the mirror with me. I took it off the hinges of the Vanity and it was probably already packed into the car by now. 

“Catch ya later, Beej!” I whispered walking past the door. When we had the bags in the car and started off to the airport, the day went a little faster.

By that evening I was pulling a bunch of my bags down the hallway to room 513. It was convenient that each floor was numbered to whatever floor that was in the hundreds. Meaning that since my dorm number was in the five hundreds, I was on the fifth floor. Pretty neat, huh? Had a nice view, that’s for sure.

So I was signed in, had all my bags at the door, now I needed to get everything in.

Struggling with the keys, I finally got the door to open and I creaked it open slowly. I wanted to savor the moment of seeing my dorm for the first time, I don’t know why though.

And suddenly, I no longer wanted to savor it. Instead, I wanted to take all of my bags and go to college in Japan. But I wasn’t that fast, so I stuck with another method of dealing with your fears. As soon as I had the door opened and got a good look inside, I screamed as loud as I could.


	12. Epilogue

"Happy Halloween!" I giggled at the halloween decoration I set up on my end of the dorm room. 

They were large enough to at least split in half, and being dorm buddies with Claire was the last thing on my mind. The head Mistress of the school promised to move us at the end of the first semester, so I'm trapped in this hell hole of a dorm with her until' December. Oh joy...

But it wasn't all that bad. Claire was always at parties, never really at the dorm at all. What surprised me was that she came to this college particularly, so she can be a fashion designer. I couldn't really care less about what she wanted to come here and be when she graduated. All i care is that her dorm isn't anywhere near mine! And unfortunately, she's a lil too close.

Brought back to my reality by a rapping on the door, I looked across the room at a sneering Claire, who was putting her shirt on. She glared at me, eyes narrowing as if telling me that if i answer it, I'll die. I glared back but with a smile on my face, and the rapping on the door continued. 

"I'll get it-"

"Oh no you don't!"

And as if she just said 'Go' we both sped to the door. Claire tripped over her half-slipped on shoe and landed on her face on the ground, and I made it to the door first.

Opening the door and greeting whoever stood on the other side, I turned to Claire and gave her a wink. 

"Trick-or-treat!" yelled a small voice as I turned to look out the doorway again, and Claire groaned, immediatley happy that she wasn't the one answering the door.

Standing there in the hallway stood a small, seven-year-old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, just like her cousin's. Just, unlike her cousin, I was happy to see her. 

"Ellie! Happy Halloween!" I greeted the small girl and she smiled up at me. 

I really enjoyed Ellie's company, truly I did. I didn't care if she was my arch nemises' relative, I loved her like she were my own daughter.

Ellie was, yes a look alike of her cousin, but she had the same personality I did when I were 12. Percy tells me that letting her explore the dark side I explored when I were younger was bad for her. Yeah right. What's wrong with being a little different? I never saw anything bad about it. Speaking of Percy...where the hell was that cat? The small furry body that I had snuck into the dorm areas rubbed against my leg amd meowed loudly. So where's my favorite little girl at? he thought to me and looked over at Ellie and all of her young glory. I smiled, waiting to kick him for that slightly, but beamed down and picked him up.

She stood there in a gray jacket, and a pair of old blue jeans. Another reason Claire came here to this college, her uncle lived near by, so he would buy her anything she wanted if Ellie were allowed to visit all she wanted. And Ellie loved to visit.

"Well, I guess I have to hand you candy too huh," I giggled and pulled out a large Hershies bar. 

Claire growled behind me, and shoved us out of the way and started down the hall dressed up as a playboy bunny and a purse hanging from her shoulder,

"Move it, freak shows, I have a Halloween party to make it to. You're watching the brat, as usual," She called back.

I growled and set percy down, ready to jump her.

Claire never stayed by to at least say hi to her cousin. She didn't really acknowledge her! She just went to whatever party it was and then stayed in bed the next day with a hangover.

It pissed me off even more how she just treated her cousin like a ball of meat.

I found Ellie sitting alone in our dorm by herself one night to get away from her parents, one of the times I came back from the Neitherworld. She was just sitting there, alone and sulking to herself. I remember being that alone...until' I met...BEETLEJUICE!

"Don't worry, Lydia, she calls me brat all of the time," Ellie sighed as I tensed. 

I was supposed to spend this Halloween with Beetlejuice and I had completely forgotten! I turned to Ellie with a slight frown on my face.

"What's wrong? she asked, looking confused.

"I was supposed to spend Halloween with a friend of mine, but..."

"Well maybe he can come here? or were you planning on going to their dorm," she sighed.

I smiled, I couldn't pass up spending Halloween with Ellie either.

"You haven't met him yet maybe you can meet him tonight and all three of us can do something fun for Halloween," I smiled.

"He's a magician, I should warn you He has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, so be careful," I giggled and turned around.

Oh, not the oaf, again, Percy sighed as I smirked slightly at his irritation.

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" I whispered rapidly while turned around.

Not even before I finished the second syllable the third rime I did have my feet swept out from under me.

"Oof!" I yelled, feeling my back hit the floor hard. 

"Babes! It's Halloween! What are we going to do huh, huh, huh?" Beetlejuice's excited voice filled my ears and I opened my eyes to see him hovering right over me, pinning me to the ground.

"I'm surprised you haven't gotten any ideas yet," I mumbled and he did a double take on our position.

"Oh, sorry Lyds," He laughrd nervously and pulled himself off of me.

"Wow, you and Claire did a number on yer room..." he chocked on his words and gawked at our room.

True, my half was dark with spider web comforters and the usual dark look to it. Claire's half was painted pink with...yuck...sugar spice and everything nice. I shuddered at the thought and pushed it away, still on the floor I turned in Ellie's direction.

"Well Beetleman, I was thinking I'd let you meet a friend of mine this year," I smiled and stood up, walking over and stepping behind Ellie.

The small shy girl she was, Ellie hid herself behind me, eyeing Beetlejuice warily. 

Beetlejuice stood there, with a dark smile creeping over his face.

"Hey, girlie," he smiled and pulled a snake from his pocket.

"I got something for ya."

"Oh how cool!" Ellie smiled, immediately taken by the snake and pulled it from his grip. The snake submitted to her instantly and allowed her to scratch it's head.

Beetlejuice stared at her, a weird look on his face and slowly, he began to smile.

"She's just as creepy as you are Lyds! where'd ya find er?"

"She's Claire's cousin."

Immediately after the words escaped my lips, Beetlejuice flew back across the room and curled up in the corner.

"GAH! A MINI CLAIRE!!" he screamed and shielded himself with his arms.

I laughed and Ellie growled, jumping up on the bed.

"I'm nothing like my cousin!" she yelled, stomping a foot angrily.

Beetlejuice flinched and looked up.

"Oh well in that case," he lept into the air, screaming as he gave off a head spin,

"Happy Halloweeeeeennn!!"

I giggled and Ellie laughed too. Tugging on Beetlejuice's arm, I pulled him into me and wrapped my arms around him.

"What's with the sudden mood babes," Beetlejuice asked, wrapping his arms around me in return but pulling me away enough to look me in the eyes.

"I dunno" I smiled shrugging.

Just as things seemed to be going smoothly, there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" Ellie smiled and ran underneath Claire's bed, pulling out a large, pink purse and running to the door with it.

"Trick-or-treat!" yelled a few small voices.

A moment passed with Beej and I staring at the door, still stuck in our embrace and listened to shuffling and 'Happy Halloween' greetings on the other side. I forgot that a few families would be bringing their relatives through the dorms for trick-or-treating.

Ellie pranced back into the room, the large bag hanging off the shoulder.

"What's in the bag?" I asked. 

I never saw Claire use it, how did Ellie know where it was.

"Claire told me not to touch it she says that it's a special bag, full of chocolate, usually she takes it out before she leaves for a party every few weeks or so...."

I rolled my eyes of course no wonder she never got edgy on her monthly visits she had a big bag of hidden chocolate under her bed.

"Since it's Halloween, I thoughtshe'd be ok with it."

"She's gonna kill you when she needs that bag again," I sighed.

"Why's that?"

"Well you see kid, there's a Bird, and there's a Bee-"

"BEETLEMAN!" I yelled, turning around and elbowing Beetlejuice in the stomach.

He gripped his gut and I growled at him.

"You of all people shouldn't know that!"

"I'm old enough to babes."

"Not mentally, your not!"

"That a challenge?" he looked at me wriggling his eyebrows.

I shook my head and hugged him again.

"Beej, I love you," I laughed, shaking my head again against his chest his fingers pulled underneath my chin and he lifted my gaze to his.

I felt bad for doing this in front of Ellie but...aw hell I don't care!

"Halloween...you know I love it."

As he finished his sentence I pressed my lips softly to his in a lingering kiss.

"You and I both," I agreed.

Get a room!! Percy yelled at us, even though Beej and Ellie won't know what I'm laughing at, I think I almost lost it completely.


End file.
